Side Walk When She Walks
by lithiumxflower
Summary: Mu, Murrue, Kira, Lacus, Dearka, Milly, Yzak, Athrun, and Cagalli are all heading up to a vet. party in Orb. The couples travel up separatley but then end up all meeting up and get stranded in the woods! They survived the war, but can they survive this?
1. Lost

Newly revised! **For those of you who are new to this story, I'll give a little overview. Mu, Murrue, Kira, Lacus, Cagalli, Athrun, Dearka, and Yzak all end up stranded in the woods on their way to a war veteran celebration. While lost, they come face to face with a mysterious being. Is it there to help, or is it up to no good? You'll just have to read and find out ;) Trouble and bad language are assured, so sit back and enjoy this wild ride. **

"Mu, aren't you ready yet? You've been in the shower for two hours! What the hell are you doing?!" Murrue yelled as loud as her voice would allow.

"I havn't been in the shower for 2 hours you know. You've just been talking to the bathroom door for the past hour and a half." Mu replied from behind Murrue playfully.

Murrue turned around, but unfortunately for her, had nothing to say. Instead she just looked up at Mu with the most confused look he had ever seen her make.

"When did you leave the bathroom?" She asked, clearly confused out of her mind.

"When you were turned the other way packing." Mu answered back trying not to laugh at her.

"B-but, you-you were in there, I know you were. The door was closed and everything." She sulked as Mu put his hands on her arms.

"That's because both of us have the habit of closing it when we're finished. It's out of instinct, probably from having so much privacy on the Archangel; see now what _else _that war has done to us? It's turned us into some kind of privacy freaks."

"And yet we sleep in the same bed together every night." Murrue sniggered and leaned in to kiss Mu lightly on the lips but ended in more of a passionate lovers kiss.

Murrue was so happy that she was with Mu. She sometimes cried when she thought about almost losing him back up at Yakin Due a few months ago. Mu would go into their room and find her curled up in a ball on their bed, tears streaming down her face, and he would know exactly why. He would go over and sit on the bed next to Murrue and rub her back telling her that it would be ok, that he _was_ there, and whisper sweet nothings into her ear. She would eventually perk up enough to sit up and hug Mu tightly and cry into his arms to reassure herself that he was indeed _there_.

As soon as they broke out of their kiss Murrue looked up at Mu and brushed a few stray hairs out of his face.

"Where did you go for an hour and a half I wonder?" She said as she leaned her head on his strong frame and listened to his heartbeat as if to paint the sound of it on her memories. _This _was the heartbeat that stayed strong all throughout the war and even through the threat of death. This was _her_ Mu's heartbeat.

"Are you ok?" Mu noticed her sudden solemn ness.

Murrue felt warm tears poke and tease the back of her eyelids. She couldn't hold them back anymore, so she let her suppressed sobs wrack her entire body as Mu held tightly to her. Just the mere thought of losing Mu used to make her miserable and depressed, but now all she ever does is cry when she sees the Dominions shot being fired at the bridge and the Strike blocking its path.

Whenever she closes her eyes at night she sees Mu and the Strike fading to dust, and hears Mu's final words; _"Didn't I tell you I could make the impossible…possible?!" _

So whenever she's too tired to keep her eyelids open, she slides over and clings to Mu like he's all she has left to grasp. She knew that he wasn't, because there was still Kira and the others, and the thought that they would be seeing everyone in a matter of hours cheered her up a bit. She knew that everyone would be there for her no matter what, and that's all she needed to be alive. Murrue finally calmed down when Mu hesitantly broke the pained silence.

"Are you alright now?" He asked as she looked up at him and he wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Yes, thank you. We should probably get going now; we don't want to be late."

"Alright, let's go then." Mu answered back to her and wrapped an arm around her waist as they grabbed their luggage and walked down the stairs to get out to Murrue's car, Murrue's long strapless black dress trailing behind them.

* * *

"Oh my, I have no idea what I should wear tonight." Lacus Clyne sulked as she stared at the different variety of dresses in her hotel room closet.

The dresses ranged in colors from pink to green, and blue to orange. Hell, her whole closet looked like a rainbow of spaghetti straps and halters. Kira and Lacus both came from Lacus's mansion up in the PLANTS. After a little _too _much time at the orphanage with Cagalli, Athrun, Malchio, and the children, they both decided it was time for a break. The were both fortunate enough to find a hotel on such short notice, for as soon as they got back from the orphanage, Lacus received a call from Ezaria Jule stating that there was a enormous war veteran party in Resha, a city just south of Orb. They have about a 3 hour drive ahead of them, and their party started at 8:00 P.M. Unfortunately for Kira and Lacus, it was already 5:30 and Lacus _still_ wasn't dressed.

"Lacus just pick one; they all look fine on you." Kira half urged half complimented his pink haired princess.

"But-

"No buts, we're already a half hour behind, and by the time you get dressed it will be god knows what time and that will cause us to lose even more time." Kira whined as Lacus _finally_ grabbed a baby blue halter dress, revealing quite a bit of leg, stopping at her thigh and abruptly slanting down to her ankle. She also grabbed a matching shawl and a pair of baby blue lace-up shoes. She quickly allowed her towel that once hugged her slim figure to slide to the ground to reveal a tiny pair of boy shorts.

"Gah!" Kira blushed and quickly turned the other way.

Lacus giggled. "It's nothing you havn't seen before." Lacus said with a laugh, but she would never admit that she was red as an ember and her face kept getting brighter and brighter by the second.

Once she had her dress on she slipped into her shoes, tying up the lace straps, and hurriedly scuttled over to their dresser to tie her hair up in a blue ribbon and the infamous gold pin. Once her hair was up and she was satisfied, Lacus quickly tripped over to the bed where she had discarded her shawl and threw it over her shoulders as she and Kira, who grabbed both their bags, exited their hotel room.

* * *

Milly was accustomed in an orange strapless dress that came down to her knees. She had a pair of strap on orange shoes with quite an impressive heel. She was currently rummaging through her refrigerator looking for some sodas to bring along with them when Dearka snuck up behind him and tickled her side causing her to jump up in surprise and knock her head off the top of the fridge.

"Ouch, Dearka!" She shrieked as she tossed an apple from the counter at him hitting him square in

the back of the head.

"Bulls eye!" Milly shouted triumphantly.

"Ouch, that's not fair! You weren't supposed to hit me back!" He griped as Milly picked up the apple causing him to flinch, and washed it off in the sink before placing it back onto the counter. "Then maybe you shouldn't have tickled me in the first place. You know I'm not just gonna have you beat me up without payback right?" Milly asked slyly while approaching him.

"N-no." Dearka stammered for words as Milly backed him into the wall, but before she could do anything, Yzak walked in to the kitchen.

"Do I even want to know what's going on in here?" Yzak asked, eyes widening slightly.

"No, not really; can you guys help me find some sodas or water bottles to bring in the car with us? It's like a 3 hour drive to Resha and I know _someone's _gonna get thirsty and whine about it the whole way up." Milly emphasized as she stared Dearka down with _that_ look of hers.

"Ehh, sure thing, Miriallia." Dearka replied nervously while scratching his head as he shuffled toward the basement door to check for any sodas downstairs.

Yzak waited until Dearka was downstairs to gesture to a 12 pack of Coke next to him.

"Never mind, Dearka!' Milly yelled down the stairs to a very frustrated Dearka.

"Ouch, dammit!" Dearka yelped as a box of seltzer water fell off a shelf and onto his foot.

"We'll be out in the car, dumb ass. Yzak called down to him with the usual insult causing Milly to snicker.

"Jerks," Dearka muttered and drug his feet up the stairs and out the door.

* * *

Cagalli stared in honest pain at the horrid thing. It was green, went down to her ankles, and had slits up to her _thighs_ on** two**, not one, _but_ **two** sides. It also had a pair of matching dress shoes that were pain stakingly high.

"Cagalli, what are you doing?" A familiar voice asked from the door way.

"Not going." She snapped causing the blue haired man behind her to wince and then sigh in frustration.

"Why not, Cagalli?" He asked her jadedly.

"Because, Athrun, you know how much I _hate_ dresses!" She whined in despair.

"I know Cagalli but you have to wear one. This is a formal party and you wouldn't want to go their looking the way you usually do, especially since it's a war veteran party." He explained to her trying to convince her without an argument.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean, Zala? Is there something wrong with the way I look _now_?" She asked fuming while backing him into a corner in Cagalli's bedroom. She then looked down at herself, only adorning a bath towel. She looked up to him, almost daring him to say something stupid.

"Well, actually…no," He muttered almost suggestively. Cagalli glared. He got nervous. "All's I'm saying is that you should at least make yourself look even better than you do already." He sighed inwardly; so much for _not_ starting an argument.

"You're one lucky man, Athrun. If you didn't know how to save yourself here and out in that war, you'd be dead by now."

This is how things have been for Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yula Atha for the three months since the war ended. As soon as Lacus called them and told them about the party they both sped back to Cagalli's mansion to pack and dig formal outfits out of their closets. It was harder for some than others. They both decided that they would find a nice place to stay after the party was over with. Little did they know they wouldn't exactly find the kind of _nice_ place they had in mind.

* * *

Mu and Murrue were driving up and over Mt. Rodney. They almost felt bad for the poor little Black Jetta, for it had an extremely high climb and they were getting low on gas.

"Says here that this mountain was named after a war veteran named Al Rodney. He died in the beginning of the war in a freak accident; seems to be the hero of the land. He _supposedly _helped to save Orb from destruction many times with his extraordinary skills. Guess he was a coordinator." Mu explained as he read from the guide he found in the pocket of the drivers side door.

"How many times do you hear that wherever you go?" Murrue asked seemingly unfazed by the article in the little brochure Mu was holding.

"Uh oh." Mu stated quietly.

"I don't like the sound of that." Murrue replied back at him touching his arm gently.

"We're almost out of gas. We better pull over and see if we can make it the rest of the way." Mu decided as he pulled the little car over to the edge of the road looking off of the mountain, a little **too **close to the edge to be safe.

Murrue pulled out a map form the passenger side door pocket and handed it to Mu. He looked it over as his lips twisted into a frown and his brow furrowed. Murrue had to stop herself from laughing at his face.

'_He's so funny when he thinks.' _She thought to herself.

"We're probably not gonna make it." Mu stated as he folded the map back up and set it on his lap.

Outside of the car the front left wheel was slowly inching its way off the edge of the road.

"What are we gonna do, Mu? Maybe we should just try to make it. It's better than sitting here and doing nothing." Murrue tried not to sound annoyed, but she was.

The car continued to slide unnoticed off of the road.

"Maybe you're right; it's better than-WOAH!" Just before Mu finished his sentence both him and Murrue jerked forward as the front end of the car slipped off of the edge.

"MU!" Murrue gasped as she grabbed onto Mu's arm.

Mu started up the car and tried to back up, but the front of the car was stuck on the ledge.

"I'm gonna open my side and crawl out, then im gonna pull you out, got that?" Mu asked Murrue as he pulled the keys out of the ignition.

Murrue nodded her head, not able to find her voice. Mu shifted in his seat causing the car to wobble dangerously. Murrue clenched her grip on Mu's arm. He tried to open the door but that just made it worse. The car screeched from their movements and grinded over the rocks on the edge of the mountain as it slipped. Murrue let out a terrified scream as the car plunged down the mountain through the trees and brush. Both she and Mu grabbed onto each other with one hand and held on to their car door with the other. Both of them were screaming ear splittingly loud as Murrue's little car swerved just barely missing some trees and side swiping others. It didn't take long until the car hit the road below the one they were just on, crashing abruptly into something as they did.

* * *

Dearka was driving Milly's blue Buick along Mt. Rodney peacefully with no fighting going on between Yzak and Dearka surprisingly. Each of them had a coke opened from Milly's house that they gave Dearka such a hard time over. Everything was fine until they heard screeching tires screams and saw a little black car flying down the mountain just ahead of them.

"Dearka!" Milly screamed as her car and Murrue's car crashed right into each other, sending the passengers in both cars flying forward into their dashboards.

Dearka looked over at Miriallia to make sure she was alright. She was still leaning forward into the dashboard with her hands over her eyes. There was a huge crack in the windshield, but lucky for them, it wasn't broken. As for Mu and Murrue, lady luck wasn't exactly on their side. Murrue was lunged forward into the windshield and Mu was thrown into the window. He was the first to come to.

"Gah, there is no way in hell I'm ever pulling that one again. Murrue are you alright? …Murrue?" Mu turned his head and saw Murrue twisted in the seatbelt that seemed to do more harm than good, with a steady stream of blood flowing down her forehead and dripping off of her nose.

He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and rushed over to Murrue's aid. He shook her gently at first but then started getting frantic. He pulled her back into his arms and unbuckled her seatbelt as well.

"Come on Murrue I know you're gonna be just fine. Wake up now, would ya?" Mu pleaded with her insensible form.

Murrue slowly cracked her eyes open just enough so that the blood wouldn't drip into them.

"Thank god, I was starting to think I lost you." Mu explained relieved.

"W-what happened?" She asked confused as she sat up with Mu's help.

"We ran off the side of the mountain and crashed into another car I think." Mu stated forgetting all about the car they ran into.

Before they could get out of their car someone came up to their window.

"Mu La Flaga, Murrue Ramius, what the hell were you two thinking sliding down the mountain like that? You almost killed us all!" Dearka Elsman yelled wildly as he chewed them out.

"Sorry Dearka, we're not exactly used to running off of mountains, we'll make sure to watch where we're going next time." Mu stated sarcastically.

"Eh, sorry, you gave us a real scare there." Dearka implied apologetically.

"Us?" Mu repeated wondering who he could be with.

"Yeah, Yzak, Miri and myself were all headed to this war veteran party, but then we ran into you two, quite literally! Thanks so much for totaling our…rather Milly's car." Dearka laughed knowing that Mu wouldn't leave Murrue to beat the shit out of him.

"I should be saying the same to you. We were headed to the same party." Mu retorted as Dearka lost his cocky grin. "Anyway, could you help me out with Murrue, she hit her head pretty hard and I don't want to knock her out again." He asked as he slid out of the driver's side.

"Sure." Dearka answered as he too made his way over to the passenger side door.

The two of them worked together as they pulled Murrue out of the car and laid her on the ground. Mu investigated the cut on her forehead as Dearka watched him. Mu reached into his pocket and brought out a handkerchief to dab off the blood.

'_It really isn't that bad of a cut, the smaller ones tend to bleed more anyway.'_ He thought to himself reassuringly.

After Mu was finished tending to Murrue's gash, he looked her over while she was in his arms, her head propped up against his forearm, to make sure their weren't any other injuries he had missed.

"Are you alright?" He asked Murrue while he shifted her around in his arms trying to make her as comfortable as possible.

Mu only got a moan in reply so he figured he wouldn't get a straight answer until she was fully conscious. Until then he decided to ask Dearka to help him hoist Murrue onto his back so it would be easier to carry her around seeing that neither of the two cars were going any where any time soon. Dearka and Mu looked over at Milly's car and watched as she helped Yzak out of the back seat. They noticed that he had a slight limp.

"What happened Yzak?" Dearka asked trying not to sound too concerned even though he was.

"My foot got caught under that damn seat when we swerved. I must've sprained it or something." He replied slightly annoyed at the thought.

"So now what?" Milly asked her companions.

"We'll see if our phones have service, that's what." Dearka insisted.

Everyone dug out their cell phones with at least a little bit of hope, but once they looked at their service bars, all hope was crushed.

"Awe man, well this sucks ass." Dearka whined.

"Does Murrue have a phone, Mu?" Milly asked her former superior officer.

"Yeah, it's in her purse in the car."

"Alright, I'll go get it and see if she had any luck with service, or a decent phone plan." She added acidly.

Everyone waited for Milly to pop her head out from the car. She emerged with a little silver flip phone and flipped it open. She examined it then frowned. The tiny screen read _'no service,'_ in bold black lettering. She held it up high above her head to see if it would help, but to no avail; same outcome, different phone.

* * *

Kira and Lacus were driving along Mt. Rodney as well and the sun was starting to set. So every now and then it would get dark where there were a lot of trees making it really hard to see. Well unfortunately for Kira and Lacus, the accident scene from before, was in one of those ever so strategically positioned dark spots.

Kira didn't know what to do when he saw the two totaled cars. He jammed his steering wheel to the right to avoid causing more damage to the wreckage. He didn't realize he was headed for a tree until he looked up and saw it for himself. The little red car smashed head on with the pine tree, jerking Lacus and Kira forward violently.

Lacus caught herself just before she plunged through the windshield. Kira, however, wasn't quite as lucky. His seatbelt didn't lock fast enough to stop him from sailing partway through the windshield.

"Oh my god!" Milly shouted as she watched the horrid scene play out in front of her eyes.

Murrue snapped back to reality once she heard the crash and shifted uncomfortably, unnoticed by Mu, who was too busy staring in disbelief. Murrue looked up just enough to see the pink haired songstress and the brunette teen shoved partway through the windshield.

"Jesus," she whispered under her breath as she eased herself from Mu's grasp and slid off his back while gripping his arm tightly in the process.

Dearka and Yzak allowed their mouths to gap unnoticed at the sight. Milly was the first to snap to attention and take action.

"Dearka, go get some ice from the cooler and find something to put it in. Mu, you go and make sure Lacus is ok. Yzak, you go find a tree branch big enough to break the rest of the windshield. I'll see if Kira's-if Kira's, s-still-still alive." Milly fumbled, never imagining she'd _ever_ have to breathe those words again after the war.

Milly slowly worked her way over to the wreck. She carefully climbed on top of the hood and reached a shaky hand out to check for Kira's pulse. She released a heavy sigh of relief when she confirmed it was there.

"He's ok." She called out to her shaken group of friends.

Every one of them exhaled the breath they knew they were holding deeply. Glad to have that burden off their shoulders. Lacus also turned out to be just fine. Dearka returned with a makeshift ice pack made with half melted ice cubes and a zip lock bag, and Yzak with a tree branch.

"How is it that you escape that hell pit of an accident with not even a scratch, and your boyfriend gets thrown halfway through the windshield?" Dearka asked the pink haired pop star.

"Lucky day," Lacus suggested all the while worried for Kira's safety. The only thing she could do, however, was sit back and do nothing while Yzak tried to free the former Freedom pilot.

Yzak violently swung at the passenger side of the windshield with the over sized tree branch until it shattered. Mu and Dearka gently pulled Kira out of the glass and laid him on the ground. Milly went over to see what he looked like and if he needed immediate medical assistance, although she wasn't quite sure how she'd find that. It was then she noticed the weary look on Murrue's face.

"Murrue, are you alright? You don't look so good." Miriallia more stated than asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." She answered naturally. "Just tired is all." She lied with appalling certainty.

Milly wasn't convinced but decided not to press the matter. She walked over to where Kira lay and grabbed the ice pack from Dearka with more haste than she had intended to use. She held the ice pack on top of Kira's head where it went through the windshield, trying to relieve him of some of the pain that he would surly feel surging throughout his body when he woke up.

"Does anyone have a first aid kit?" Miriallia asked the bunch.

"I do, it's in my car." Murrue spoke up weakly.

Getting suspicious of Murrue's condition, Mu jumped up quickly.

"I'll get it, you stay put." Mu ran over to the crushed car and pulled the first aid kit out from underneath the passenger seat.

Once he made it back over to the accident scene, he surrendered the white box over to Mir.

* * *

Cagalli was on the passenger side of the car scowling at her green dress, all the while having the wind blowing constantly, sending her hair sailing in every direction, all because she let her boyfriend convince her to let him put the top down. She was _too _nice.

"What are you staring at?" Cagalli snapped at Athrun who had been alternating between driving and looking at the perturbed blonde sitting next to him.

"It's nothing." Athrun almost stuttered while returning his gaze to the road in front of them.

It was probably a good idea seeing that it was getting dark out and if he didn't keep close attention to the road he would end up like Kira, or worse. Cagalli who was now starting to get angry let out a frustrated sigh and tried to calmly speak to Athrun.

"Athrun, if you don't tell me what you were staring at, then I'll knock you out and drive this car off the mountain!" She screamed seemingly losing what little control she had left.

"It's just that I don't understand why you hate dresses so much if you look so good in them." Athrun smiled as he said this knowing he caught the princess off guard.

Cagalli blushed but then regained her usual composure.

"You're just saying that to make up for the comment you made back at the house.

"That was meant in a sentimental kind of way!" Athrun shouted almost letting go of the steering wheel to flail his arms about in a wild gesture.

Cagalli couldn't help herself; she had to laugh out loud. Athrun just laughed along with her as they continued driving alongside the mountain. Suddenly, the little car started to gradually lose speed.

"Athrun, what are you doing?" Cagalli asked nervously.

"Nothing, the car is stopping on its own!" Athrun panicked as he stomped down on the gas pedal.

The car kept getting slower and slower until it finally stopped. Athrun looked over the steering wheel at the dashboard while passing over the mileage and making sure the service light wasn't on. He then reached the very end and said the words that they were both surely dreading to hear.

"Out of gas?"

Cagalli screamed louder than she ever screamed her entire life, causing all the birds to fly out of the trees above them.

* * *

"Woah, did you guys hear that?" Dearka asked as a scream echoed off the trees surrounding them.

"Sounds like trouble." Mu answered Dearka's question for all of them.

"Should we check it out?" Milly asked while looking around trying to trace the scream back to its owner.

Lacus, seeing Milly was distracted, gently touched her hand so that she could hold the ice pack to Kira's head. Before anyone could make a move they heard two familiar voices. One belonged to a fuming blonde the other a cringing blunette.

"Cagalli, Athrun! What the hell is going on? We thought somebody died!" Dearka shouted, but failing to catch their attention.

"I can not believe you didn't fill the gas tank up, Athrun!"

"I did, the damn thing ran out of gas before we even got to Resha! It's not my fault!"

"Of course it is you jerk!"

"How is it my fault that no one has the decency to put in a gas station between Resha and this beast of a mountain?!"

"It just is, end of story!"

Athrun let out a frustrated yell. All eyes were on him when he looked up.

"WHAT?!"

"Kira!" Athrun heard Cagalli gasp as she ran to her downed brother.

'_No.'_ He whispered under his breath as he too rushed to Kira's side.

Neither of them had to ask what happened once they saw Kira's, once close to perfect car. They were both reassured when they saw Lacus's calm face, however. It was then that they knew he would be just fine.

"So what now?" Mu popped the question that by now was floating around in everyone's head.

"Easy, we set up camp here." Yzak stated simply.

"Wait. Lacus, Athrun, and Cagalli, check your phones for service.

They all did as Milly told them; they brought out their phones with hope and one by one they all frowned.

"This damn piece of crap doesn't even have any battery left." Cagalli threw out a few colorful profanities under her breath and then kicked the ground in frustration, causing all of the dirt to blow into her face.

"Oh, this would have been a wonderful day to stay in bed!" She screamed, all the while coughing the dust out of her lungs.

"What of Kira's?" Athrun asked while watching his girlfriend hop around trying not to lose balance due to the shoes she was wearing.

She finally caught her balance and plopped down on a fallen tree. She wasn't there long of course because the tree she was sitting on eventually broke from the weight and the dryness of the tree itself. Cagalli landed on the ground with a loud _'OOF'_ and then fell backwards onto the ground.

"I think I'll just stay down here." She sighed as she relaxed on the forest floor.

Athrun sighed in amusement and turned back to Lacus, who was searching Kira's pockets.

There could have been hope if not for Kira's crushed cell phone.

"Must've been in the wrong place at the wrong time." Cagalli laughed while looking out the corner of her at Kira's completely totaled phone.

They all decided to go out and find a clearing in the woods before it got dark. Just as they started for the nearest path they heard a voice sound.

"Mu…"

Mu turned around just in time to see Murrue collapsing to the ground first by falling to her knees and then slowly toppling over. He was there fast enough to catch her before she hit her head again. The last thing she saw before succumbing into darkness was Mu's confused and concerned face. The face that you could love and hate at the same time.

"Damn, she must have suffered a pretty extreme concussion." Dearka stated the obvious as he kneeled down to have a closer look at Murrue.

"Yeah, I think maybe we should find a place to stay as quickly as possible." He said while looking at the sleeping beauty gathered up in his arms.

"Wait," a voice spoke up. The group recognized it as Athrun's.

"What is it, Athrun, something the matter?" Mu asked nervously, not liking the look on Athrun's face.

"Yes, actually there is a problem."

No one even breathed; they all just listened to what Athrun had to say. He walked over towards the side of the road where something had caught his eye when he and Cagalli were arguing. He leaned over and pulled up a broken sign that Mu and Murrue had most likely run over when they crashed head on with Dearka, Milly, and Yzak.

"Well?" Cagalli snapped, her patience running thin.

They all strained to hear Athrun's words, but once they heard them, they wished they hadn't.

"Warning, do not enter, unsafe Zone."

**Well there it is; the first chapter of something that was supposed to be one shot at one point. I'll be going through and revising everything so that there are no errors. This is something I should've done a while ago but, oh well. Better late than never, right? XD**


	2. Karma, Heartbreak, and A Bear

**I'm still working on my revisions for this story. It's a long, grieving process, but, very worth it. If this is your first time reading this story, hope you enjoy this XD**

"What the hell is this sign supposed to mean?" Athrun asked uneasily, holding the sign up with shaky hands.

"I'm not so sure, maybe it's not meant for now. Maybe there were construction workers here doing something while we were up in space. You never know I mean, come on, how unsafe can it be here?" Dearka asked in his usual carefree tone even though deep down he was scared, he didn't know what to think of this, but there was no use in getting everyone worried.

"I think that we should just find a way out of here as quickly as possible. Then we won't have to worry about what the hell that sign meant." Mu spoke out, giving them all some reassurance. He was right though, they should find a way out, even though they were about 3 hours away from civilization and none of their cars were in working condition.

They managed to head out and find a nice clearing in the woods and they gathered some wood and made a small campfire. Lucky for them it was spring and it was warm outside, otherwise they would've had a problem. Mu was sitting next to Murrue who had her head in his lap, she still hadn't regained consciousness, yet it wasn't something to be too worried about, she'd only passed out a mere 30 minutes before. Mu was stroking her hair watching her chest rise and fall, reassuring himself that she was still breathing.

Lacus was sitting next to Kira who had regained consciousness just before they left to find some place to stay momentarily. He had his head resting on Lacus's shoulder, the white bandage still wrapped around his head to keep the gash in his forehead from bleeding any further than it already had. Every so often Lacus or someone else would check to see if it needed to be changed, but so far the bleeding was kept at bay.

Athrun was leaning up against a log that he and Yzak had pulled over so that some of them could sit. He had his legs spread apart and Cagalli was sitting in the middle resting her head on his chest starting to fall asleep. Athrun had his arms around her waist and she had her hands on top of his. This was a rare calm moment between the two, one that not many get to witness. But, the moment was there and everyone that saw it had to admit that they were a very cute couple.

As for Dearka and Milly, Milly was playing her usual bit of hard to get as Dearka chased her around while they gathered more fire wood for their makeshift camping adventure. Any observer that didn't know any better would probably say that they were hunting each other down trying to see who could beat the other to death with their firewood first. But in reality they were just doing their usual obvious show of flirting, but neither would admit that, at least not Miriallia anyway. Dearka would come up behind Milly and tickle her causing her to drop the firewood on her foot and whip around to beat him only to be tickled again. Basically, they were making the best of the situation they were in.

And last but not least, Yzak. Well, Yzak's just, well…Yzak. He sat on a log hating the world for throwing him into the middle of the woods with _these_ people. But deep down inside, he knew that if he had to pick a group of dysfunctional idiots to get lost in the woods with, it would've been _this_ group of dysfunctional idiots that he'd have picked. So that's his sob story of the day. But, everyone still loves him no matter how much of a bitch he is sometimes.

"Does anyone have any idea on how the hell we're supposed to get out of this place without, one, a car, two, food and water, and three, it's getting dark out." Dearka spoke up as he threw another log onto the fire causing sparks to spit out everywhere on everyone.

"Ouch! Dearka, If you're gonna try and kill us can you at least do us all a favor and do it in a more subtle manner?!" Yzak was the first the cry out as everyone blew on the spots where the sparks landed.

Cagalli, who had almost been asleep, jumped up scared the living hell out of Athrun who in turn jumped up and knocked into Cagalli sending her toppling over Milly who paid everyone back by dropping all of her firewood on them.

"Thanks a lot Milly, it's appreciated." Athrun grunted form the bottom of the pile.

"No problem, I'm glad I could help!" Milly chanted happily as she was the one on top.

Cagalli, of course, was not too happy about the outcome, she was the one crushed in the middle.

"If you two idiots don't move right now, there's going to be a problem here." She mumbled sweetly, too sweet if you asked Mir and Athrun's opinions.

But of course the two just stared up or down at her with the most confused looks ever that almost cried out, 'huh?' so they got what they asked for.

"That's it, someone's goin' down!" Cagalli screamed as she shoved Milly off of her causing her to bounce as she skidded on the ground.

The next thing you know Athrun's getting beat senseless.

"Ouch…Cagalli…I…didn't…even…do…any…thing…Ouch!" Athrun choked out every word after each blow.

Cagalli finally stopped and took a deep breath. "I know, but you were the closest."

Athrun sighed as she got up, dusted herself off, and reached out a hand that he gladly took. Dearka also pulled Milly up off the ground as she too brushed the remnants of dirt off of herself muttering something about wasting so much money on a dress just to roll in the dirt with it. What ever it was she said, which no one is sure exactly, but, it made Dearka smirk.

"Well now that you got that out of you systems, where do we go from-" Mu was cut off when he heard a soft moan from below him. He looked down to see a pair of tawny eyes staring back up at him, blinking away sleep slowly.

"Good morning sunshine, did you sleep ok?" Mu chirped as Murrue lifted herself up with his support so that she could sit.

"If you call a concussion sleeping ok, then sure, I slept like an angel." Murrue retorted with humor of her own.

For some odd reason everything got deathly silent, barely anyone breathed, this was probably the first awkward moment they've had since they were back on the Archangel.

"Did you know every time there's an awkward silence a gay baby is born?" Of course Dearka had to ruin the moment of peace.

The group sat there even more awkwardly, looked up at Dearka and then broke out in uncontrollable laughter all at once. Even Kira couldn't detain his laughter as he and Lacus laughed together. Dearka and Milly slid to the ground and laughed their hearts out. Athrun and Cagalli held onto each other as they doubled over gasping for air between peels of laughter. Yzak almost fell off his cute little log onto his face. Mu slipped an arm around Murrue's bare shoulder so that he could support himself, and Murrue held onto her stomach as she too broke out in laughter.

Once everyone calmed down Athrun spoke up. "Wow, that was the first good laugh we've had together since the end of the war."

"Yeah, the first good laugh, but not the first stupid thing that came out of Dearka's mouth," Milly laughed, but soon became solemn in her thoughts.

This time, everyone got silent, and almost nothing could break them out of this reverie.

"During the war, it was hard to laugh, hard to smile, hard to even breathe, knowing that all of those people were dying out there." Cagalli spoke out without really thinking about what she was saying could do.

The comment worked its magic on everyone around the fire, but it impacted one of them the most for some reason. The last person you would've ever thought it would show on.

Murrue thought from the end to the beginning, starting with Mu's death, the thought that made her break down every time no matter where she was.

"_EVADE!" _

"_Impossible, not enough time!"_

"_I won't- I won't let you hurt her!"_

"_Didn't I tell you I could make the impossible, possible?!"_

"_MU!"_

"_Our main goal here is to protect the Archangel, nothing more, nothing less, you got that?!"_

"_YES SIR!"_

"_Admiral Halberton!"_

"_MURRUE, LEAVE, HURRY!"_

"_MOM, NO!"_

"_MURRUE RUN!"_

"_DADDY!"_

"_COME HERE MURRUE WE WON"T HURT YOU WE PROMISE!"_

"_NO!"_

"_THAT'S WHAT YOU GET MURRUE!"_

"Snap out of it, Murrue!" She felt herself being shaken, by whom, she wasn't sure, she just needed to run, to get up and run. And that's exactly what she did. Murrue stood up as quickly as possible and bolted into the woods.

"Murrue!" Mu called out to her, but to no avail, nothing was stopping her.

"We should follow her-

"No I'll go get her." Mu cut Dearka off while panicking at the same time.

'_What the hell could've spooked her?'_ He asked himself as he ran off in the general direction that she ran in. How far could she possibly get in those shoes anyway?

_Smeared black ink; your palms are sweaty and I'm barely listening, to last demands_

Murrue ran through the brush, cutting up her legs and arms as she did so. She didn't feel it however; her mind was only centered on the pain that she had inflicted upon herself a few moments before. She didn't want to remember, oh what she would give to get rid of those memories, those dreams, they seemed like they would haunt her forever. And maybe they would.

_I'm staring at the asphalt wondering, what's buried underneath where I am_

Mu followed her trail swiftly; he could hear her distant footsteps, her sobs, her heavy breathing, almost as if his senses jumped up a thousand notches now that she wasn't by his side. He didn't know what wrong with her, he didn't know why she just twisted out of control all of the sudden. He could still feel her gyrating out of his grasp as she ran. He just needed to get to her before she did something rash. But what if he couldn't?

_I'll wear my badge: a vinyl sticker with big block letters adhered to my chest_

Murrue tore her way through the branches and brush, speeding up, running at speeds she never knew existed. She wanted out _that _badly though; badly enough that she would run from _him_, the one that was there for her when she needed him most, and yet she just kept running. She could feel her feet getting torn apart beneath her from her shoes and from the thorns and twigs that kept constantly ripping through her skin and lodging themselves into the bottom of her feet.

_Tell your new friends: I am a visitor here, I am not permanent._

He lost her, no, he couldn't have; she was right in front of him just a second ago. Or maybe it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. It didn't matter, she was far more important to him then for his mind to be left wondering around like that. He needed to find her and he needed to find her _now. _But what if he didn't?

_And the only thing keeping me dry is…_

Murrue couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't comprehend. Why was she running? What was she running from? And more importantly, where was she running to? All of the thoughts that were running through her head didn't matter anymore, she saw a clearing up ahead, and that's when she realized she was finished running, and that she had to stop to face the pain, and finish it all at the same time.

_You seem so out of context in this gaudy apartment complex. A stranger with your door key, explaining that I'm just visiting_

It was a lake reflecting the navy blue night sky, the stars, and the wisps of clouds. Everything seemed so calm. Murrue felt herself collapse on the shore, tears streaming down her face, pooling in the water causing it to ripple. She slowly reached out a hand and let her fingertips graze the water, watching the rings around it grow until they disappeared.

_And I am finally seeing, why I'm the one worth leaving_

He saw her, sitting by the shore; he could once gain here her sobs as she stared down at the water. He sighed, relived that he had found her; _he found her_. He slowed himself to a halt as he watched her from a distance. He didn't want to scare her, so he was trying to think of a way to approach her with out spooking her. He walked around her and decided to approach her from the side, making just enough noise to catch her attention. She looked up at him, tawny eyes shimmering with tears; it pulled his lips into a frown when he saw her.

_D.C. sleeps alone tonight_

"Murrue, are you ok?" He asked her while worriedly crouching down and putting two comforting hands on her warm cheeks. He instantly regretted asking such a stupid question.

"What I meant was what's wrong? What happened to you?"

She shook her head, as if telling him that she didn't know, because in reality, she didn't know what caused her to flee like that. They were the usual memories, the usual pain, but something was different this time. She had him to run from, not wanting to face him, not wanting to retell her past, and not wanting to know how he would react to hearing that she endured so much, and tried to handle it all on her own.

_You seem so out of context, in this gaudy apartment complex. A stranger with your door key, explaining that I'm just visiting_

"Mu, I'm sorry." She mumbled trying to keep her tears from falling.

"Sorry for what, Murrue, for running off like that? I'm not upset, how could I be? If something is bothering you that bad, how could I be mad at you for panicking? But you need to realize that we're all here for you, and that we care about you and want to help you."

"No, Mu, I'm sorry for not- for not telling you."

"Not telling me what?" he coaxed her gently allowing her to let it all out at her own pace.

"About- about, me; after Mendel you told me all about you and your family and about your past, but I didn't even have the decency to tell you about myself. You spilled everything out to me that day, and then when you- you almost d-died, I knew I would never be able to tell you anything anymore. I realize I was being to selfish back then, and you even risked your own life to save me, and all I could do was sit there and cry about it, like some silly little child crying over a broken toy. You're so good to me Mu, and there's never anything I can do in return. I can't even talk about my- "

"Stop it Murrue, you don't have to pay me back for any of those things, I did all of that because I wanted to. He paused and then added. "I did it because I love you."

_And I am finally seeing, why I was the one worth leaving_

Murrue buried her face in his chest upon hearing him say that. She knew what had to be done, as much as she hated to relive everything that's happened to her when she was a child, she knew he deserved to know more than anyone in the world. She silently pulled herself back together as she leaned out of his embrace and looked up at him.

"You'll probably want to sit down for this, Mu."

He did as she told as he sat right next to her, not touching, he gave her some space, he knew she would be more comfortable if she could tell her story without any distractions.

"When I was about 10 years old, both of my parents were fully active in the military. They were barely ever home, but on the rare occasions that they were, they were the most loving parents any child could ask for. Unfortunately, their "play no games" commander didn't think so. She was a fierce woman, and she never too no for an answer, I learned that the hard way. She tried to convince my parents to give me up, and put me up for adoption. She said that I was a distraction to their working abilities. Even if it wasn't mandatory for them to do this, she still asked it of them. Of course they wouldn't listen; they loved me and didn't want to see me go. So they argued, they told her that they refused. Their commander and her advisors eventually gave up for awhile until one afternoon my mother was home on a 2 day leave, things were going good where she was working on base, so she got breaks like these very once and a while. She came home to a message on the machine; I hadn't answered the phone because, at that age, I wasn't allowed to pick up the phone unless my mom or dad told me to be expecting a call from them. It was a threatening message from the top of her squadron. They told my parents that if they didn't send me off within the month they would lose their positions in the military. She deleted the message.

Over the weeks the messages got more and more degraded. The next message that we received was threatening us to lose our home. The one after that they were talking of coming and taking me themselves and restraining and locking my parents up in prison for not heeding to a direct order. To this day I don't understand how they thought they could force my parents to give up their only child. I don't know why they wanted to do it either, but, I'm hoping one day to find out. The one after that was the one that twisted our lives into a living hell. It was a warm April night when my entire family was home for once when it had happened. It was starting to get dark and we were all in my living room watching the news when there was a knock on the door. Me and my mother stood up to open it, but when we did, my mom threw me behind her and tried to slam the door shut, but the figure behind it kicked it open taking it off of it's hinges. My father came over to stand in front of my mother and myself. There were 5 men, each of them armed. They wanted to take me and then take my parents lives. It all happened in a whirlwind of bullets and blood. They succeeded in killing both of my parents and they also shot me 3 times, avoiding my vitals, just enough to knock me out from blood loss and pain, but not enough to kill me. They took me back to base with me and attempted to raise me there, it was hell.

I stayed there for about 6 years, getting beat and abused every day, the day I turned 16 I left and enlisted in the military. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was both of my parents last wishes, so I did it for them." The last part of Murrue's story was choked, her voice locked up inside of her chest, she turned to look at Mu, tawny eyes reflecting in his blue ones, but he didn't notice a thing, he was still trying to absorb everything that she had just thrown at him.

_The district sleeps alone tonight after the bars turn out their lights, and send the autos swerving into the loneliest evening_

"Mu?" Murrue questions the former commander as she waved a hand in front of his face.

When he looked at her, he, the Hawk of Endymion, had tears brimming in his own eyes. He looked down at her in disbelief as she looked up at him in the same manner. And all at once they embraced each other, now twice as relieved that they had met each other. They both stayed like that for a little while longer. Eventually Murrue shifted positions so that her back was against his chest, his strong arms around her waist, his face buried in her hair, chin resting on her shoulder, both of them looking at the stars. _This_ was what she had been waiting for ever since that fateful day in April, and she would never ask anything more of him for as long as she lived.

_And I am finally seeing, why I was the one worth leaving_

* * *

"I wonder how those two made out." Milly wondered worriedly.

"I'm sure they're fine, Mu probably handled it and they're sitting there looking up at the _beautiful_ stars together." Dearka answered romantically, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Yeah I'm sure of that one Dearka. Murrue snaps and runs into the woods and then the outcome is them staring at the stars; right." Yzak snorted back laughing.

"Ya' never know, Yzak, they could be; but I guess you have a point, this is Dearka we're talking about here. His ideas usually…well, honestly they suck." Cagalli added on while rubbing her sore hip after she and Milly's collision while the whole group, including herself, laughed at her remark.

Suddenly Kira stopped laughing and asked. "Did you guys hear something?"

"No, did you?" Athrun asked his best friend suspiciously, assuming that Dearka farted or something.

"I thought I heard a branch crack out there somewhere." Kira answered back while looking all around trying to decipher the noise.

"Now that you mention it I thought I heard something as well." Lacus stuck up for him, but she honestly heard a noise similar to the one Kira was describing.

"What month is it guys?" Cagalli suddenly randomly asked.

"What kind of a question is that?" Yzak snapped back.

"A good one, now answer me somebody!" Cagalli was, once again, losing her patience.

"It's the middle of May, why?" Milly asked her before someone got hurt.

"Don't bears come out of hibernation sometime in April?" She asked the group.

"Do you think it's a bear?" Lacus asked nervously.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Milly answered sarcastically, not believing that their luck actually sucked that bad.

"It's probably just Mu and Murrue coming back. Mu's probably being a smart ass." Kira tried to reassure Lacus, but it didn't seem to help at all, seeing that he was contradicting himself. He was, after all, the one who brought it up, thinking it was something, rather than someone.

"Watch it pop out right next to Yzak." Dearka laughed.

"Yeah, right." Yzak sneered assuming that something like that would never happen to him just because he has an ego the size of Dearka's empty head and a god complex the size of China.

But of course being the lucky person he is, today's bad karma just didn't like him very much. A good sized cub came out of the bushes that he was currently standing next to. It walked right by them stopped at the fire, sniffed around a bit, and then went on its way. Of course, everyone standing there didn't take it lightly, they all froze on the spot and watched it as it walked back into the bushes across from Yzak. Once the bear was gone, there was movement and breaths taken around the fire. There was also Dearka practically rolling on the ground laughing at Yzak.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" He continued to laugh until he heard a growl.

He wasn't the only one, however, that heard it, and everyone froze where they were again, and tried to find out where it came from.

"Well guys, common sense, if there is a cub then the mother must be around here looking for it!" Milly exclaimed quietly but got her point across loud and clear.

The bear finally emerged from its hiding spot in the bushes and walked over to Dearka. First the bear sniffed him, then after awhile it got bored with sniffing his pants, it stood up on its back legs and started to sniff his shirt. It wasn't that big of a bear, it only towered about a foot above Dearka. Dearka, however, was not amused by this. If the truth be told, he was scared shitless, but he wouldn't tell. Allow me to rephrase that, he wouldn't _have_ to tell because it was written all over his face that he was about to piss himself.

* * *

"I wonder how everyone is doing back at the campsite." Mu asked his lover as they held hands and made their way back to camp.

Murrue held Mu's hand in her left and carried her shoes with her right. She could still walk, although it did hurt her feet. They were, after all, bleeding and blistered from her run through the woods. Their trip back to camp could've been better how ever, speaking that Murrue had swerved around so many trees when she ran off she ended up turning in a completely different direction. Lucky for them, they found a trail.

Of course, since luck just loved them _so_ much, they ran into Yzak's "little friend" on their way back. They could hear the bear grunting and snorting from down the trail. Mu thought fast and clamped a hand over Murrue's mouth and dove into the nearest cluster of bushes until the bear waddled by.

Murrue let out a sigh of relief into Mu's hand as her heart started beating again.

"What's wrong, scared?" Mu teased.

"That's the first time I ever saw a real bear." She answered back.

"Same here, it wasn't that bad was it?" Mu asked her as they stood up while Murrue linked arms with him and continued walking.

Things were pretty much back to normal until they heard a loud, high pitched, almost feminine scream come from a few yards away. They both looked at each other and started to run when Murrue crumbled to the ground in pain.

"Murrue, are you alright?"

"My feet, I can't run." She explained, but before she could breathe another word Mu swooped her up in his arms and carried her as he ran all the way back to their campsite.

The scene that had unfolded at their site wasn't exactly one that the duo was expecting. This is what they saw.

"Dearka, you're not supposed to scream, now it's mad!" They heard Milly cry as she jumped up and grabbed onto the nearest tree branch as she too watched the scene unfold right in front of Mu and Murrue.

"You Dumbass, why did you have to do that?! It would've left eventually!" Yzak cried out as he ran away from the now fuming bear that was going on a rampage.

"It's not my fault it was groping me with its nose in places I'd rather not be touched by a bear!" Dearka retorted as he also swung up into a tree.

"Cagalli, watch out!" Milly cried out to the blond as the bear came up behind her.

"AHHHHH!" Cagalli screamed as she hid behind Athrun who grabbed her and shoved her into the nearest tree and followed suit without hesitation.

"Kira!" Lacus squealed as she jumped on top of the log she was originally sitting on when the bear came charging at her.

Kira quickly jumped up into the tree that they were sitting by and then pulled Lacus up just before the bear plowed right through her.

Now it was just the bear and Yzak. Dearka took off the black jacket to his suit and threw it down a t Yzak.

"Yzak vs. big scary bear round one; it's not red, but it'll have to do." Dearka laughed since Yzak was the only one _not_ in a tree, why, no one knew, but, he was the easiest person to pick on right now.

"What do you want me to do, run around yelling Toro, Toro?!"

"Yeah, actually that's it." Dearka answered as Milly smacked him in the head and reached out a hand for Yzak so he could get in the tree with them.

"Come Yzak, grab my hand, I'll pull you up!" Milly grabbed Yzak by the collar and pulled him up against the tree so that he would turn around and start climbing.

He, of course, lost Dearka's jacket in the process of getting pulled into a tree and climbing it. Once he was in the tree they watched the bear shred Dearka's jacket to bits.

"Hey, that was mine you jerk." Dearka whined as he watched his beloved jacket get ripped to shreds.

"Not anymore." Yzak pointed out.

Now the bear had no one to chase, so it was pretty pissed, It circled camp a few time before going over to the tree Yzak had just scrambled up and clawed at it a little.

"Hey, Yzak?" Milly started.

"What?" He answered back.

"I think it likes you."

Yzak almost fell out of his tree. Soon after, the bear retreated back into circling the campsite.

"I guess he doesn't like me anymore."

"Guess not." Milly watched as it walked around their campfire for about the millionth time that night.

"You all do know that bears can climb trees, right?" Mu questioned.

"Yeah, until he sees you." Dearka snapped back annoyed.

"Ahh!" They heard Milly cry out and they soon knew why.

The bear had its front paws up on their tree and was trying to climb up, that is, until it heard a very distracting noise. Mu had jumped out from behind his and Murrue's tree and was whistling trying to get it away from Dearka, Milly, and Yzak. His plan worked, unfortunately for him, he had to climb up his tree in record time.

"Go, go, go." He repeated to Murrue as he pushed her up as fast as possible.

He followed behind her but was a little too slow. The bear clawed at his leg and managed to get a few pretty deeps gashes causing him to cry out in pain as Murrue yelped out his name and pulled him up with her, her shoes discarded on the ground next to the bear. The bear turned around as if confused and started walking circles around their campsite.

"So what did we do to this thing again?" Cagalli questioned trying to start a light conversation between them all.

"We messed with her kid?" Dearka tried.

"That's exactly what happened. She can't find her cub so now she's going to take it out on us, assuming that we were the reason her cub disappeared." Mu explained while he positioned himself so that he could look at his injury.

Mu also looked up at Murrue and gave her one of his "I'll be fine" looks. If you didn't know Murrue you'd think the look she gave him was of relief, but she knew better than that.

"So now what do you we do? Sleep in these trees?" Athrun wasn't happy, actually he was down right pissed off that his luck could actually suck this bad in one goddamn night.

"Guess so, but why isn't the bear climbing any of our trees?" Kira countered Athrun's question with a more interesting topic.

"I guess it doesn't know which tree to climb, I mean, there's people in like every single tree around this campsite." Dearka answered while smiling.

"So what happens when it does pick a tree, assuming that it will sometime today?" Lacus sounded out.

"Then whoever's in the tree it decides to climb is screwed." Yzak answered, short and sweet.

The bear then retired from circling and moved over to Mu and Murrue's tree and started trying to climb theirs instead of just running laps around their fire.

"Why doesn't it just keep running around the fire instead of trying to kill us?" Murrue questioned as she grasped Mu's shirt.

Mu was about so say something about them climbing higher when he heard a grunt from behind him.

"Oh, for the love of humanity, not another bear." Dearka whined.

"Yeah, another bear, but maybe it will come to our advantage." Mu answered back.

"How?" The group asked him but they didn't have to wait to hear an answer, they saw for themselves what Mu meant.

The cub from before emerged off the trail and caught the mothers attention, the mother bear stopped clawing at Mu and Murrue's tree and made a beeline to cuddle with her baby. The two bears slowly made their way out of their campsite and back into the woods. Everyone looked at Mu for approval to get out of their trees, seeing that Mu knew the most about bears, somehow.

"Is it safe?" Athrun called out.

"Yeah, can't see her bothering us anymore tonight." Mu answered back as he slid out of tree trying not to put pressure on his right leg where the bear had scratched him.

He reached up and helped Murrue climb down from the tree as well. All of the other males did the same with their girls. Except for Yzak, Yzak just sucked at life and had no one to help down or anyone to catch him. So of course when he went to slide down from his tree his leg got stuck and he went down head first. He still effectively got himself out of the tree, but if could have been done with less pain.

"Dammit all to hell tree, burn in hell." He muttered loud enough so that the group could hear and they all started laughing at him.

"Yeah real funny, funny until one of yous falls out of a freaking tree." He complained not liking the whole make fun of Yzak deal.

They all sat down on a log or on the ground, and they sat in complete silence for about 5 minutes before they all started breaking out into uncontrollable fits of laughter at how pitiful their lives were. They laughed like that until another tragedy befell them, the ground started shaking lightly and then it grew into violent shaking that knocked them all off of their perches and caused them to land on top of each other in a mass of limbs.

"What the fuck?" Dearka managed.

"That's it, we're all officially boned." Yzak finished.

**:breathes: This is hard. No time to chat, I have to continue editing and revising. See you all in the next chapter XD**


	3. Luck? Not exactly

**WEEEEEEE!**

Everyone picked themselves up off the ground one by one as they looked around trying to figure out what was going on.

"Alright then," Cagalli said nervously. "I think we just found out what the whole "Warning unsafe zone" thing was about." Cagalli put out as she helped Athrun up off the ground.

"Yeah, I guess so." Athrun answered back.

"Yeah, as freaky as it was, it was also really…random." Milly announced.

"I guess we're good then." Dearka smiled and went back to sitting on his log.

"Mu, I think you should let me take a look at your leg." Murrue said while gesturing to Mu's leg, now soaked through to the bone with blood.

"That might be a good idea." Mu agreed once he caught a glimpse of his leg.

"I think your wound needs attention as well, Kira." Lacus tuned to Kira so that she could investigate his injury and change his bandage.

While the two women treated their men, whom they sometimes wondered if they could pass as children instead, the rest of the group thought about how they were ever going to get themselves out of the extremely unfortunate bad luck they've been tossed into.

"So, how are we gonna work this one out?" Milly started.

"Maybe we can walk?" Lacus suggested as she finished up with Kira.

"I don't think that would- " Milly started but she got cut off by something that sounded a little like a lose, lose situation. Kind of like either you get killed by your worst nightmare, or you jump off a cliff. Either way you die.

"OUCH! Any more alcohol and I'll need a designated driver!" Mu cried out in pain as Murrue tried to apply come rubbing alcohol to his bear scratch.

Apparently, this was no matter of life and death. This was just Mu being the big baby he is.

"If you would just hold still then we would've been done by now," Murrue answered back as she tried to dab on more rubbing alcohol, but Mu grabbed her hand.

"Oh no ya' don't." he jerked his leg away from her reach while she gave him one of _her _looks.

"Mu La Flaga, if you don't let me see that leg right now I won't sleep in the same bed as you for a month." She knew that would get his attention.

Mu gave her the saddest look she had ever seen. She almost laughed out loud at his cute puppy dog eyes. He slowly brought his leg back up in to Murrue's view. Murrue reached down with her cotton ball again, but he flinched before she even touched him.

"Come on, Mu, don't be such a baby, I didn't even touch you yet!" Murrue laughed as she said this, not expecting Mu to be so sensitive to pain like this. He can handle gunshots wounds and a war, but not a little rubbing alcohol and some scratches from a big fluffy bear.

Murrue went to try once more but he grabbed her hand again. She tried to push down but he kept forcing her hand this way in that in all the directions she didn't want her hand to go in.

"Mu, come on, we need to do this."

"Nope."

"Mu."

"Murrue."

"I'm warning you." That was her warning tone, the one that said 'or else.'

But, Mu still didn't listen; he just kept a firm grip on her arm as the rest of the group watched in amusement. Murrue now moved on to drastic measures.

"Alright, alright, you win, Mu."

"You're not- huh?" Mu questioned her in surprise. He then smiled devishly.

"So you give up, eh?" he asked triumphantly, thinking he had won for once, but oh how wrong he was.

Murrue quickly turned around and started tickling Mu's sides causing them both to fall off their log on to the ground next to the fire; Murrue being the one on top. Mu rolled around laughing while Murrue continued to tickle him all over, laughing as she did so.

"Ok, ok you win!" Mu laughed out loud and she finally stopped her torture.

"Are you going to listen now?" She asked him with a smile.

"Yes ma'am." He answered her obediently, breathing hard from laughing so much.

"Good," Murrue answered while leaning down to lightly kiss him on the lips.

"You know Mu, it sucks for you that she could take total advantage of you right now." Dearka pointed out as Murrue pulled back from their kiss.

"You wouldn't do that, would you?" Mu asked Murrue nervously.

"Let's see, I don't know. Dearka, do you think Mu deserves to be taken advantage of?" Murrue turned to Dearka, but instead of getting an answer from just Dearka, she got drowned in a wave of replies.

"I think the real question is, does Mu deserve to _not_ be taken advantage of?" Cagalli asked, a cat-like grin on her face, a sculpted eyebrow raised?

She pulled Mu's arms up over his head and held them there while she leaned down, her lips only a whisper away from his. She slowly blew on his lips causing goose bumps to dance up and down his arms. She lowered her lips to his neck and nipped at him there until she traveled back up to his lips where she covered his mouth with her own. She bit at his bottom lip before slipping her tongue into his mouth, suppressing a moan from him and 'wooh hoos' from their audience, causing her to smile into their kiss against his mouth.

She eventually felt Mu kissing her back as his tongue raced across her bottom lip causing her to sigh making her mouth open so he could intensify the kiss. Two could play at this game, and he wanted payback. He slipped his tongue into her mouth running it along the roof of her mouth. She fought back as she bit his lip causing him to open his mouth as he cried out in pain against her mouth. She slid her tongue into his mouth and thrust it back as far as she could with out gagging him, thus engaging them in a game of tonsil hockey.

Mu, of course, had other plans. He tickled her sides causing her to jump back with laughter so that they could both take a breath and then he pulled her face back toward him and continued their game with him in the lead. This was greatly arousing Murrue, so she pulled back and let him take the victory as she felt her pride slip through her fingertips.

"Man oh man." Mu said in between breaths of air.

"Holy shit." Yzak called out.

The couple got hoots and whistles form the whole group of teens standing close by.

"Did you guys even breathe?" Dearka asked in utter amazement.

Murrue blushed while Mu just laughed it off.

"You're one hell of a lucky guy, Mu." Kira called out.

"You sure are," Athrun agreed.

Surprisingly Cagalli didn't punch him for that comment, she just nodded her head while laughing a quick 'yeah.' Their moment didn't last too long, however, the ground started to rupture once again. Milly and Dearka ran over to help Mu and Murrue up off the ground while Yzak stumbled along behind them in case his help was needed. The shaking didn't let up either; actually, it made the ground start to crack. A huge ravine started to form right between the two groups, separating them. The ground started to separate leaving a huge gap in between them. It kept going until the ground was about 100 yards apart, too far of a distance to jump.

"Oh, shit." Dearka muttered.

"You said it." Yzak added on.

"Hey, Is everyone alright over there?!" They heard a voice yell from the other side; it was Cagalli.

"Yeah!" Mu hollered back, seemingly being the first to regain his composure.

"Ok, We're gonna try and find some place where the two sides meet! It should be light out soon, so you all should do the same!" Cagalli yelled out their plan from across the crevasse .Everyone on Mu's side nodded their approvals and Mu gave Cagalli's side the thumbs up.

"Ok, we're gonna try and find a place where the two sides meet, like you've been informed. We're gonna stick together. If anyone gets lost, we drop what we're doing and go and find that person. It's then and then and only then that we split up to search. Got it?" Mu pep talked the group before they trotted off into the woods.

He got a combination of answers from the group. "Sure why not," came from Milly. "Alright," from the direction Murrue was in. "Sounds good to me," from Yzak. Then, last but not least, "Okey dokey smokey." You all should be able to guess who that came from.

Mu gave Dearka a strange look before continuing.

"Dearka…ehh, forget it. Anyway, we might as well get started."

Mu's group then began walking through the woods near the edge of the cliff that just formed a few minutes earlier. The forest started to get denser, so Mu spoke up.

"Stay close, I don't want to lose anybody." Mu grabbed Murrue's hand while Milly linked her arm with Dearka's.

"I don't know what you'll do to help if we run into trouble, but at least I have something to hold on to." Milly commented while Dearka smirked.

"Yeah, sure, leave the single guy to walk by himself." Yzak whined from behind the quartet.

"I always told you that you needed a girlfriend, Yzak, but it'll be a cold day in hell when you start listening to me." Dearka teased.

"Please, I get enough of that from my mother. Oh shit, my mother! She's probably worried out of her mind about us!" Yzak panicked.

"I know how you feel, but there's nothing we can do about it really." Dearka stated while looking down.

"Hm." Yzak started wondering what was probably going through his mother's head right now.

She probably thought he ditched the whole idea of even going…oh man. He decided to change the subject to wondering what happened to his little "friends" and hoping that they wouldn't run into them again anytime soon. While he was off daydreaming the group took a turn, but poor Yzak kept going straight. He didn't realize that he was lost until about 5 minutes later when no one answered his question.

"Hey, do you guys think that those bears…are…around…here…oh shit."

Mu and the rest took even longer took even longer to realize Yzak was missing.

"Hey Yzak, I havn't seen your new "friends" around at all, have you?" when Dearka got no response, he turned around.

"Uh, oh."

"What did you do now Dearka?" Milly asked.

"I lost Yzak."

Mu stopped walking. "You what?"

"I lost Yzak."

Everyone turned around overdramatically slow to see…no Yzak.

"You lost Yzak! I can't believe you lost Yzak! Dearka what were you thinking?!" Milly exclaimed, slightly over reacting, but only slightly.

"I wasn't, I'm sorry!" Dearka cried.

"We'll have to split up and look for him then." Mu announced.

"Murrue, Milly, you cover by the ledge. Dearka and myself will look deeper in the woods." Mu explained while Murrue and Milly nodded their heads while Dearka just looked…well…like Dearka in a crisis. Wide eyed, clueless, and slightly crazy.

"Ok, but why are you separating yourselves from us? I figured you'd want to go with Murrue, if you know what I mean." Milly asked slyly.

"Because Yzak needs an extra punch or two, so I'm going to accompany Dearka and personally beat the shit out of that obnoxious pilot." Mu responded dryly, ignoring Milly's comment.

"Alright, how about we meet back here in an hour or so?" Murrue suggested.

"Sounds good, but how do we know where_ here _is?" Milly asked, pointing out a possible problem.

Mu answered by promptly taking off his black jacket to his suit and hung it on a branch. He didn't really car for it anyway. Underneath where the jacket concealed most of he shirt, were rolled up sleeves and an unbuttoned collar; just like him.

He snorted his disapproval of the heavy black fabric. "I didn't like that thing anyway, so we'll use that to find our way back. Once you see my jacket you'll know that you're where you're supposed to be." He walked over to Murrue.

"Are you sure you're gonna be alright, Murrue?" He asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

Mu gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

"Be careful, alright?" He added before turning around.

Dearka wandered over to Milly to say goodbye.

"I guess I'll see you in an hour or so?" he asked with a small smirk.

Instead of answering him with a well thought out joke, Milly stood on her tip toes and gave him a light kiss on the lips.

"Be careful, Dearka." And with that, she and Murrue were off on an Yzak hunt.

"S-sure thing, Miriallia." Dearka answered back to her even though no one could hear him, except for maybe Mu, but he didn't care.

"Let's go kid." Mu grabbed Dearka by the collar and dragged him along to look for poor Yzak.

"Gah!" Dearka was rudely pulled form his reverie but followed along shortly after.

247545347563435436

"So, Murrue…" Milly began.

"Hmm?"

"How far have you actually gone with Mu?"

Murrue blushed as her mind raced back to her and Mu's little _game_ about 30 minutes ago.

"No much further than heated make out sessions on our bed at night."

Milly gave her a suspicious look.

"What?! I'm serious, we havn't done anything like _that_ yet, I promise you."

"I believe you, don't worry, me and Dearka havn't even made out yet. Oh and…sorry that was a personal question I asked back there." Milly apologized, cutting herself off, not really knowing what she was thinking.

"It's alright, really, keep going with your story." Murrue really wanted to hear what Milly had to say about her and Dearka.

"Ok, well, Dearka practically melts every time I touch him let alone kiss him. So, I don't like to rush and make him nervous." Milly laughed at the memories of leaving Dearka stuttering like a fool every time she pecks him on the lips.

"It's just the opposite with me and Mu. The first time he kissed me I thought my legs were going to break on me." Murrue laughed at the thought.

"Yeah, I remember Neumann came to tell _everyone _that he had caught the Captain and the Commander kissing on the bridge. It was probably the funniest thing just watching his face while he told us." Milly winked while watching a blush creep up on Murrue's cheeks.

"So, when did you start having feelings for Mu?" Milly questioned boldly, wanting to know what the story was.

"Not long after the 8th fleet was destroyed, when we first landed in the desert. That was when I started to feel something for him. I always did enjoy his company, but not the way I did later. It got a bit more intense."

"I had the feeling there was something going on between you two. The way you always told him to be careful when he launched. And the way you two were always flir- I mean talking whether it was in the hallway somewhere or in your office." Milly joked, but was kind of serious at the same time. She thought it was cute the way they acted around each other.

"I guess we were just meant to be, huh?" Murrue asked while laughing.

"I guess so." Milly answered back.

"Hey! We were not flirting!" Murrue cried out upon catching Milly's little flaw.

"Well then, wait until you see the surveillance camera's Neumann snatched up before we disembarked. I actually think they were going to show them at last night's party. It was going to be called, "The things your faithful military personnel does when you're not looking," That must've been good." Milly watched as Murrue paled to a ghostly white color.

"I'm just kidding, but Neumann still did catch you and Mu's moments in the halls together and showed it off to everyone in the mess hall one night."

"All of them?" Murrue spoke out with barely any vocal.

"Yep, all seventy five of them," Milly almost looked like the devil himself when she said that.

"Seventy…five?" Murrue squeaked?

"Yes, seventy five." Milly confirmed.

Murrue gulped loudly while turning the other way. "Oh boy." She could hear Milly laughing from right next to her.

The two were talking so much that they didn't realize how dangerously close to the edge they were getting. It wasn't until Murrue's next step that made them see.

"So what about you and- " Murrue was cut off when she slipped and she gasped when she saw the dark crater beneath her feet.

"Murrue!" Milly cried as she grabbed onto Murrue's hand, the weight pulling her down with her. She noticed the rock crumbling where Murrue was once standing.

Milly dug the toes of her shoes into the ground as she tried not to slip off the edge, but it wasn't working as well as she'd hoped.

"I'm slipping Murrue!"

"Don't let us fall!"

I…can't!"

The last thing the two saw was the beginning of the sunrise before plunging into darkness.

5343543535451

"Did you hear that?" Dearka asked Mu.

"It sounded like the girls, let's go!"

The two raced to the edge of the cliff through the weeds and trees as fast as they possibly could. When the two hit the edge they scaled it until Mu saw something familiar. He picked it up as he examined it.

"What's that?" Dearka questioned.

"Murrue's necklace." He answered back as he flipped it over.

_Love Always_

That's what he had engraved on it when he bought it. It was heart shaped, 2 Karat gold and lined with diamonds. It cost him well over 500 dollars as a result. He slipped it into his pocket and stood at the edge.

"Well I think we know where we have to go." Mu spoke up.

"You're kidding me right?" Dearka responded.

"Am I ever?"

"I had to side with the man that makes the impossible possible, didn't I?"

Mu nodded his head as they both got ready to jump.

"On the count of three, one…two…

"Three!" Dearka shouted as he jumped and started to slide down to the bottom.

"See you the bottom, pops!"

"Pops? Oh, he's done!" Mu shouted as he too jumped and slid down the ledge.

**30 minutes later**

"Oww, my freaking head." Dearka whined.

He looked up and saw Mu still out cold. He also saw the girls.

"Hey Mu, wake up! I found the girls!" he nudged Mu trying to wake him up.

"Huh, what?" Mu lifted up his head.

That got Mu up and moving. He was immediately at Murrue's side upon seeing her.

"This is defiantly not what she needed." Mu said as he lifted her up and nudged her.

"How about it?" Dearka agreed while he watched over Miriallia.

She was he first to come to and Dearka helped her stand.

"Are you alright?" He asked her.

"I just fell off a cliff, what do you think?"

"Yup, she's fine." Dearka announced happily.

It didn't take long for Murrue to come back to reality either. Once she opened her eyes she regained her senses quickly and was able to move almost right away.

"You gonna live?" Mu questioned.

"I'll be fine, but I can't say the same for my feet." She answered while gesturing to her already beat up feet now bleeding from scraping against all of the rocks and roots on her fall down.

Mu gently hoisted her onto his back with a little help from Milly, who was a little scratched up as well; but all in all, she was feeling pretty good for someone who just fell off a fifty foot cliff.

"I guess we have no place to go but forward." Dearka stated as they started walking.

They walked for about 20 minutes before seeing some light in front of them.

"Hey, a way out?" Milly wondered.

"It's possible. Mu answered back as they continued on.

The light turned out to be more than just a way out. All four of their jaws dropped as they made their way to the end of the line. It was, a jungle; a tree infested, wild bird sanctuary. Before they could even take another step forward, they were all pulled out of their daze by a sound that resembled screaming. They turned around to see Athrun land directly in front of them. It looked something like this:

"Ahh! Oomph!."

All of their eyes widened considerably as the scene unfolded in front of them.

"Athrun, are you ok?!" A voice called from up top; Cagalli's voice to be exact.

"I'm fine." Athrun answered from the ground.

"I'm coming down!"

"NO, WAIT-

"Whoahhh!"

Cagalli landed right on top of Athrun, which looked like it hurt a little.

"We're coming too!" Kira called out from above.

"Wait, don't do it!" Both Cagalli and Athrun yelled; but it was too late.

"Owie." Athrun cried out in pain as they hit him and Cagalli.

"Great now all we need is-

"Ohhhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

"…Yzak." Mu finished while looking down at Yzak.

"No fair, we got knocked out!" Dearka whined.

"Hey what's that over…there…whoah." Cagalli started but slowed to a stop once she saw the jungle.

**Editing sucks! I'm going to kill myself!**

_**Wandering Cat:** Yes, I do like to pick on Murrue, she's just so pickable. You'll see a lot of that throughout the fic, but the only reason I do it is because she has Mu to fix everything XD. I'm glad that you like the humor, and also hate the government._

_**xxravenwingxx:** Yes, I've finally revised everything and there's no longer inserts in the chapter. I'm also sorry the chapter got long and boring. I'll try and make my chapters more interesting. Well, I think that's it, but thank you for the review and constructive criticism. I appreciate it and it does help. I hope you continue to read and enjoy my story. If you have any other concerns, feel free to leave them in a review or PM._

_**shiny smile:** Yes, I think we all want to give Yzak a hug at some point, as much of a jerk as he is sometimes ;) I'm glad you like the story. If you have any suggestions feel free to tell me._

**For everyone else, thank you for all of your reviews up until now. I hope you all continue to enjoy my story! **


	4. Quicksand and a Little Song

**Blahhhhh**

After they all eventually stopped staring at the 'jungle,' they proceeded to walk through the gap to the mass of trees and vines. Everyone except for Yzak, who was still pretty pissed off at the world for getting him lost. He eventually caught up and allowed his jaw to drop.

"Who knew a place like Orb could have such a huge jungle in it." Milly looked around at the trees and birds.

It all seemed so natural, but it couldn't be, could it?

"I don't see what the big fuss is all about, it's just some stupid forest." Yzak snarled, but really, he thought it was pretty sick.

"Hey, Yzak?" Milly sounded.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up,"

"What's his problem anyway?" Milly turned to ask Dearka.

"He's an anal retentive bastard with a god complex," Dearka replied.

"Woah, are you alright?" Milly asked amazed as everyone stopped and stared.

"What?!" Dearka cried out in confusion.

"Those were some really big words in there kid, are you sure your feeling ok?" Mu joked while Murrue fought back a laugh.

"No, no I'm not, Mu,"

"Come on Yzak, I need to put your leash on." Milly called out to Yzak while the group walked away from him.

Yzak scoffed at a tree for a good twenty seconds before noticing anything.

"Later on, bud!" Dearka called out to him.

"Huh?" Yzak looked up to notice the group a good thirty feet away from him continuing to walk.

"Hey, wait up, don't lose me again!" Yzak cried out as he caught up with the group.

"We didn't lose you, you lost yourself." Dearka retorted while smiling nervously.

"Well that's a load of shit." Yzak snapped back.

"Yeah Dearka he's right. That is a load of shit, you even said yourself that you lost him." Miriallia replied cruelly.

"But, I, he, ugh!" Dearka stuttered. "What kind of a girlfriend are you anyway?"

"A mean one," Milly sang back.

Yzak stuck his tongue out at Dearka.

"Oh so you'd rather be back up there with you new little friend?" Milly asked while gesturing to the top of the cliff.

"Ahh, no, wait a minute, whose side are you on anyway?" Yzak cried out while looking around to make sure his _friend_ wasn't anywhere near by.

"I'm my own team boys, and I'm winning too." She retorted.

Everyone laughed at Yzak while he frantically searched around until he continued to scoff again, this time at the ground. The next thing you know Yzak's sinking into the ground, wait, what? Yes, he's sinking into the ground.

"What the hell is going on here?" Yzak cried as he grabbed onto Dearka's leg.

"Hey, let go, jerk!" Dearka yelped as he too started to sink.

"What the fuck?!" Dearka was now accompanying Yzak in trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.

"It's quicksand, hold still!" Milly cried out.

"Hold still, what do you mean hold still?! I'd like to see you hold still in a pit of quicksand!" Dearka whined.

Milly cracked him over the head with her fist, so he obeyed her anyway, even though he was going to die.

"Today sucks," Yzak pouted.

"You suck," Dearka snapped.

"You're funny," Yzak snorted sarcastically.

"You're funny looking," That earned Dearka a cocoanut, which was hit in the head with Yzak's fist.

"Oww, cocoanut," Dearka whined.

"Would somebody get me a tree branch so that I can get these two idiots out?" Milly sounded off partially annoyed and partially amused.

Everyone just stared at her.

"I know how much everyone can hate the two of these people, and also how convenient their deaths could be, dying in quicksand in the middle of an unknown jungle," She paused and contemplated that thought a bit. Yzak and Dearka were nervous for a while, but then she snapped out of it. "Unfortunately, we have to get them out. So let's go…NOW!"

Everyone jumped back into reality all at once as they searched for a tree branch worthy of their approval.

"Hey I found one!" Athrun called out from in the bushes.

"That's a stick, dumb ass." Cagalli snapped back at him from in front of him somewhere.

"Ouch, Cagalli, that hurts right here." Athrun answered back with a hand over his heart.

"Screw you," Cagalli answered back while throwing a rock at him.

"Ouch, that one _really_ hurt, except this time here," Athrun yelped holding his hand over his head where the rock hit.

"Serves you right," Cagalli smiled triumphantly.

"Hello, dying over here," Dearka called from the quicksand.

"You know it would be so much quieter without them around," Milly said, the thought from earlier of letting them die came back again.

"You know you're absolutely right Milly," Kira agreed and then soon after everyone else did as well.

"What are you thinking? I don't like that look Mr." Dearka stated suspiciously.

Silence.

Dearka and Yzak blinked.

More silence.

"Ah, keep looking, it' no fun without em," Milly finally decided now that Dearka and Yzak were up to their necks in quicksand.

"Thank you, god!" Dearka said relieved, that they didn't leave him and Yzak to die. Actually, screw Yzak, he deserves to die.

"What the hell are you all smoking?!" Yzak, unfortunately, didn't take it as well as Dearka.

"You all just wait until I get out of here!" he yelled as he started to sink even more.

"Shut up or we'll just save Dearka and leave you to die!" Cagalli yelled as Yzak growled.

"I think you should just go find some new friends, like a bunny, or something." Dearka suggested.

"Very funny, but sorry, I'm taken. I already have a pet bear." Yzak answered back sarcastically.

"We found one!" Kira and Lacus called out in unison while Dearka tried not to laugh at Yzak.

"Woohoo!" Dearka cheered.

"Finally," came Yzak's voice.

Kira and Lacus pulled the branch through the bushes and over to where Dearka and Yzak were stuck. Kira shoved the tree branch into the quicksand allowing Dearka and Yzak to grab onto it while the others positioned themselves at the other end of the branch so that they could pull.

It was Milly in front, then Murrue with Mu behind her with his arms around her waist grasping the tree branch at the same time. Athrun and Cagalli were behind them, Cagalli in front of Athrun so that she wouldn't be the one getting crushed if they fell. Kira and Lacus were behind with Kira on the end seeing that he was probably the strongest next to Athrun. But Athrun was Cagalli's pillow so that's how that one flew.

So basically we have two bitches stuck in quicksand and a mob of people who happen to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to pull them out with a ridiculously large tree branch. You all can just imagine what that must look like, scary huh?

"Ok, when I say so, pull. Ready- ahh!" Dearka was rudely jerked forward as the entire line pulled on the tree branch.

"I didn't say go yet, jerks!" Dearka whined as the group desperately tried to pull him and his counterpart out.

"Hey, whoever's in the back pull harder, dammit!" Milly yelled from up front.

"Believe me Milly, we are," Kira yelled back as his feet dug further into the ground.

"Just hang in there a little while longer, Murrue," Mu coaxed Murrue as she started to crumble.

"My feet," Murrue's legs tried to give out on her, but Mu tightened his grip around her waist, not allowing her to fall.

"It hurts, Mu," Murrue cried out as she felt one of the cuts on the bottom of her foot split open.

"I know," Mu looked up to see if there was a way to make this easier on them.

He then spotted something.

"Hey, Yzak, lose the jacket, you're weighing us down!" Mu called out to the platinum haired teen.

Yzak obeyed while muttering something about them always picking on the one with anger issues. Once Yzak's jet black jacket to his suit was gone, things got a little easier. The group moved back far enough so that Kira could wrap an arm around a tree.

"Ok, on the count of three, everybody give it all you got, 1…2…3, PULL!" Milly shouted out as everyone pulled like their lives depended on it.

To their surprise, it worked, Yzak and Dearka finally slid out of the quicksand. Unfortuantley for them, once they pulled the duo out, the two let go of the stick and the whole group went for a little fly. Athrun, Milly, Murrue, Kira, Mu, Cagalli, Lacus all sounded out their colorful vocabularies in order.

"Wah!"

"Shit!"

"Dammit!"

"WOOH!"

"What the hell?!"

"Fuck!"

"Oh, my!"

The landing wasn't any duller than the fall.

Milly was sprawled across Cagalli, who was on top of Mu with Murrue on the bottom. Behind them, Athrun smashed into Lacus who in turn smashed into Kira who ended up getting rammed into the tree that was behind him and then on top of Athrun and Lacus, who were having an unwanted bonding session.

As for Dearka and Yzak, well, basically Dearka clotheslines himself on a tree branch and Yzak tripped over himself and landed face first in the dirt.

"Well, that was disappointing," Dearka said from the offending tree branch he was currently stuck on.

Yzak looked up from his place on the ground with an offending remark but then stopped upon seeing Dearka.

"How did you manage that one?" Yzak questioned Dearka.

"Shut up, it was a low hanging branch,"

"Dumb ass,"

"Dirt face," Dearka retorted.

"What are you five?" Yzak questioned.

"No…6six," Dearka answered back.

Yzak just smashed his face back into the ground assuming that if god wanted him there so bad, then he should just stay there.

"I'm not paid enough for this," Yzak muttered into the ground.

"You're not paid at _all_ for this," Dearka reminded.

"Shut up,"

While those two had their usual daily argument, the rest of the group finally showed signs of life.

"Ouch, hey, how did I end up on the bottom?" Athrun whined from below Kira and Lacus.

"You just did," Kira replied casually.

"Easy for you to say, you're on top," Athrun pressed further into the matter.

"Well getting all anal about it isn't going to fix anything," Kira shot back matter of factly.

"Well why not? I mean, come on, we're stranded in the middle of the woods, no food no water, no phones, Hell, we have no connections to life as we know it whatsoever. Who wouldn't be anal?!" That's it, Athrun has officially lost it.

"Lacus, I really think it would be in your best interest to remove yourself from on top off Athrun before he goes on a massive killing spree or something," Kira suggested as he eyed Athrun suspiciously.

While those two _also_ had their daily argument, the other dog pile started moving as well. Cagalli was the first to speak.

"Hey Milly…get off,"

"Can't, it hurts, sorry," Milly replied from on top.

Cagalli then started fidgeting causing a bit of discomfort for the two people below her.

"Ugh, how about you _all_ get off?" Murrue demanded more then she suggested.

"I can't move until this one does," Cagalli whined while gesturing to Milly.

"And I can't move until both of them get off of me," Mu explained.

They all looked up at Milly.

"Wait, wait, wait, you guys didn't even give me the chance to redeem myself," Milly complained.

"Ugh, fine Milly, what's _your_ excuse?" Cagalli went along with Milly's antics figuring that they wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon if she didn't listen.

"I can't move until I can feel my body again." Milly answered back to the blonde princess.

Cagalli would've fallen over, she really would have, but seeing she was already on the ground, that made it slightly complicated to do so.

"If no one moves, then there's going to be a problem here," Cagalli said calmly…too calmly.

"Nope, sorry, can't," Milly replied.

Miriallia, you're really trying my patience today," Cagalli growled.

"You know for someone who has a concussion this really isn't too healthy," Murrue spoke up from her _very_ uncomfortable position on the _bottom_ of the dog pile.

"You're lying on my arm, Murrue, did you know that?" Mu asked out of the blue.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Murrue replied very unsympathetically.

"Yeah, me too," Mu agreed.

"Ok, will somebody _please_ help me out here, I seriously can _not_ feel my leg at _all_," Milly called out to Kira, Lacus, Athrun, Dearka, and Yzak.

"I would, but I'm kind of_ hung_ up," Dearka called out from his tree branch while laughing at his own joke.

Yzak put his face through the ground for the third time that day.

Kira, who was finally up and moving, was making his way over to help Milly when he stopped and stared at Dearka swaying back and forth almost gracefully from his tree branch, _almost_.

"I'm not even gonna ask," Kira stated as he turned and walked the other way slowly.

"I think that decision was best," Dearka agreed as he continued to sway back and forth in the breeze.

"I'm just waiting for that branch to break," Yzak said from the ground with his head propped up with one hand.

"And I'm waiting for some force of nature to smash your face back into the ground," Dearka retorted.

"Fuck you," Yzak snapped back.

While Dearka and Yzak went at it again, Kira went over to pull Milly off of their dog pile. He grabbed her by the waist and she grabbed Cagalli's arm and pulled her up off of Mu and Murrue with herself. Once Milly and Cagalli were up, Milly spotted Yzak on the ground.

"Wow, Yzak, what happened to-" It was then Milly bursted out laughing before she could even finish her sentence upon seeing Dearka hanging from the tree branch that snagged his shirt.

"What happened to you?" Milly laughed.

"This tree here attacked me," Was Dearka's response.

"Oh, ok, well you have fun with that," Milly responded as she turned to walk the other way.

"No, wait Milly, come back! I thought what we had was passion!" Dearka yelled dramatically after Milly.

"We did, but Yzak stole it," Milly replied still walking over to where Mu and Murrue were still lying.

"Yzak, you asshole, why are you always the one there to ruin my life? Dearka whined.

"Because I can, end of story," Yzak concluded shutting Dearka up.

Milly made her way over to Mu and Murrue to find out what their issue was with getting off of the ground.

"Hey, you guys can get off of the ground anytime now,"

"You know I would if my arm wasn't stuck," Mu replied dryly.

"Hey now, don't go blaming this on me, there's permanent dents from your fingers in my back, so stop complaining," Murrue spoke, causing her lips to get dangerously close to his,"

"Well, maybe if Mu rolls over, you can get up off of him, and then he can get up," Milly suggested.

"I don't know, I kind of like this position," Mu responded slyly.

"Mu," Murrue's warning tone rose form her throat as her eyes narrowed at him.

"I could get my pay back for what happened last night," Mu grinned devishly at Murrue who was starting to panic.

"MU!"

"I'm just kidding, Murrue, don't worry," Mu smiled as he rolled Murrue on top of himself.

Murrue looked down at Mu suspiciously, he usually didn't just give up that easily. She decided to just brush it off for now, he looked innocent enough. Milly leaned over and helped Murrue to stand and supported her. Mu rolled over onto his stomach so that he could push himself off of the ground, but a sharp pain running up his right arm stopped him from doing so. He pushed himself up a few inches and then collapsed back onto the ground in pain.

"Mu, what's wrong?" Murrue asked worriedly as she and Milly knelt down next to him.

"My arm, something's wrong with it," He managed as Murrue looked down to the arm he was gesturing to with his eyes.

"Well no shit," Milly rolled her eyes. Murrue took that opportunity to hit her in the stomach.

Murrue pulled his arm out from underneath him and looked it over. Once she turned it over, she realized what the problem was. There was a gash in his arm about as long as her fore finger. It wasn't life threatening or anything like that; he probably just hit a rock on his fall down to the ground.

"Well I found the source to the pain," Murrue announced.

"You must've cut your arm on a rock when you fell," Milly concluded.

"I don't think it'll need stitches or anything like that, but it should be taken care of," Murrue looked around, but there was nothing around where they were to fix a wound like that.

"I really don't know how you're gonna do that Murrue," Mu sat up using his left arm this time.

"I'm sure it will be ok until we can wash it and find something to put on it, it already stopped bleeding, so we'll look for something once we get dumb ass number one out of the tree he somehow managed to get himself stuck in," Milly explained while looking over at Dearka, who was still swaying from the branch.

Mu and Murrue looked up to where Milly had her head turned too. It took all of their well being to not burst out into laughter right then and there.

"How, did _that_ happen?" Murrue blurted out the first thing that came to her mind so that she could get the thought of laughing out of her head.

"We're still trying to establish that one," Milly answered almost embarrassed that her significant other was hanging from a tree and nobody new how he even got there in the first place.

"Maybe we should just let it go and concentrate on how he's going to get_ out_ of the tree," Mu called out as he got himself up off of the ground to help Murrue hobble her way over to where Dearka and the rest were.

Mu was looking up at Dearka trying to figure out how to get Dearka down when he felt something wet dripping on his arm. He looked down at it and realized that it looked suspiciously like quicksand. He looked up to find the source and realized that he was standing under it.

"Hey Dearka," He questioned.

"Yeah," Dearka called down form the branch.

"You're dripping quicksand on me," Mu almost complained.

"Oh, well then I have a suggestion for you…MOVE!" Dearka retaliated sending Mu back a couple of feet with Murrue in tow.

It was about five more minutes before someone finally spoke up with an idea.

"We could always just leave him here and come back for him later," Yzak tried.

"Yeah, _you_ would say something like that," Dearka pouted. "Next idea, and he doesn't get anymore say in this," Dearka ordered while sticking his tongue out at Yzak who in turn flipped up his middle finger.

"Up yours, buddy," Dearka snapped back.

"Someone could climb the tree and then saw the tree branch off," Athrun spoke up as he held a hand over his chin.

"Yeah, hold on while I whip out the saw that I keep in my back pocket," Yzak snorted.

"Hey! I thought I told you to shut up!" Dearka yelled at Yzak while swinging around not really getting anywhere.

"Or at the rate you're going we could just wait until the tree branch- "Mu didn't get to finish his sentence, because before he could get the last word out, Dearka's tree branch snapped and he ate some serious shit.

"…breaks," Mu finished as he looked down at Dearka.

"Ooh, that one hurt," Milly said quietly as Dearka slowly picked his face up off of the ground.

"Owie," With that word spoken Dearka let his face smash back into the ground as he lost consciousness.

"Ok, while he _sleeps_, I think we should find a clearing," Milly suggested as she pivoted on one foot and turned to walk the other way when she stopped and _finally_ took in her surroundings for the first time in the past half hour.

"Holy shit, ladies and gentlemen, I think I found one," Milly said aloud as everyone else slowly turned to match her gaze.

They finally realized that they were indeed in a clearing. A very nice one at that, there was a small stream running through it and it was hazed over a bit by mist, there were even logs sprawled out from the fallen trees, almost like someone had moved them. They weren't very neatly arranged, but it would do. There was a lot of space in the middle of where the logs were, so it would make a perfect fire pit. You could also hear the roar of what sounded like waterfalls, and actually start to make them out about sixty feet away at the beginning of the stream.

"Wow, this is one decked out forest," Yzak was the first to speak out as the rest continued to stare all the while making their way over to plop themselves on a log to collect there thoughts.

While they all gaped and what not, Dearka had managed to pick himself up off of the ground and over to the log that Yzak was sitting on.

"Well, look what the cat brought in," Yzak spoke, and this time, his voice wasn't as monotone as it usually is, it was almost like he was shocked for once in his life.

Dearka just looked at him, then the awkward silence again.

Someone whistled a bit, then Dearka burped; incredibly loud. Everyone tried not to laugh, but failed.

"Are you serious?" Milly laughed. "Stranded in a jungle and all's you can think to do is burp?"

Then they fell silent again.

Then, they were all corrupted by something, rather someone, and from that moment on, would never be able to look at each other the same for the rest of eternity. Ok, well maybe not eternity, but it was good for effect.

"Yzak's into whips and chains, kinky, kinky, Yzak's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky bear, lucky, lucky bear, lucky, lucky bear, Yzak's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky bear." Dearka sand while he swayed back and forth on his log.

But before anyone could say anything, he started on his next victim.

"Milly's into whips and chains, kinky, kinky, Milly's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky me, Lucky, lucky me, lucky, lucky me, Milly's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky me."

"DEARKA!" Milly jumped up off of her log only to be restrained by a laughing Athrun and Kira.

"Athrun's into whips and chains, kinky, kinky, Athrun's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Cagalli, Lucky, lucky, Cagalli, lucky, lucky Cagalli, Athrun's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Cagalli."

"Now who's laughing?" Milly questioned a gaping Athrun who was staring in disbelief at Dearka and then switched his gaze over to a laughing Cagalli rolling on the ground blushing madly, or maybe it was just from laughing, whatever the case, this was not cool.

"Kira's into whips and chains, kinky, kinky, Kira's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Lacus, lucky, lucky, Lacus, lucky, lucky Lacus, Kira's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Lacus."

"That sucks," Athrun laughed at his best friend.

"You suck! Now shut up!" Kira cried out as he pounced on Athrun taking him to the ground.

"You wanna go? You wanna go?" Kira asked Athrun while beat the living crap put of him with his fist.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do wanna go," Athrun answered back.

"Well alright then!" Kira exclaimed as he grabbed Athrun's arm and twisted it behind his back.

"OUCH! I don't wanna go any more, I don't wanna! Don't mess! Don't mess!" Athrun cried out as he pounded the ground.

While those two wrestled on the ground, Mu and Murrue shifted uncomfortably on their log as they waited for Dearka to continue, they were after all, the only couple left, and Dearka wasn't about to stop and let them go free, so they braced themselves.

Dearka smiled at them evilly before singing the last verse to his song.

"Murrue's into whips and chains, kinky, kinky, Murrue's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Mu, lucky, lucky Mu, lucky, lucky Mu, Murrue's into whips and chains, lucky, lucky Mu."

"Al…right," Mu managed.

"I'm, going to go look for some…uhm…food…yeah…food…" Milly stuttered as she got up to leave.

"Ooh, came I come?" Dearka hopped up anxiously.

Milly sighed and then gave her answer.

"As long as you promise to_ never_ **ever** EVER, sing that song again." Milly answered back while whipping her head around for affect.

"Ok," That one didn't take much thought.

"I'm going to go look for some firewood," Cagalli announced.

"We'll help," Mu and Murrue called out in unison.

"I'll go look for some water," Lacus announced and walked away from the clearing even though there was a stream right next to them, but seeing that Dearka might pop up somewhere, she figured she'd rather get lost than hear that song again.

"I'll help her, we don't want Lacus to get into any trouble, seeing as she's the only sane one around here," Yzak jumped up and followed Lacus into the woods, leaving a very confused Athrun and Kira in his wake.

Athrun and Kira exchanged a _"What the fuck is happening to us?" _look and then to everyone's

retreating backs, and then back at each other while blinking vigorously.

"This is going to be one_ long_ tragedy," Athrun spoke up.

"Yep, don't you just love our friends?" Kira asked him.

"Can't get enough," Athrun replied truthfully.

"You know you like it," Kira answered back playfully.

"Life wouldn't be any fun without 'em," Athrun concluded.

"No way in hell,"

**That song's too much. It had to be done. Editing sucks. Never do it yourself ;)**

**_Shinycry: I'm so glad that I made your day. I'm really sorry to hear that your brother has gone off to college, but, what are you gonna do? I don't have to worry about that since im the oldest XD I wouldn't care anyway, me and my brother don't exactly have a tight knit relationship ;) I hope everything works out for you!_**


	5. Yzak and the Wood Pecker

:hey guys…this chapter will get on with the storyline…the last chapter kind of had you guys running in circles I guess you could say…it didn't really get you anywhere as far as the story goes…but when the idea of Yzak and Dearka getting stuck in quicksand popped into my head…I had to do it…hehe…sorry about that...anyway…here's chapter 5:

:Yzak and Lacus:

Yzak eventually caught up with Lacus and started to walk next to her on their expedition to find water. It was kind of awkward at first, seeing that neither of them were speaking. As a matter of face, Yzak didn't even know if Lacus new he was there. He decided to test his theory and say something to her, but before he could ask her anything, she got to him first causing him to jump.

"So, how's life?" She started.

"Before or after we got lost in a jungle?" He questioned harshly.

"Good point," She answered regretfully.

"So, where's Yamato, I figured he'd be sprinting after you," Yzak commented catching her attention.

"Him and Athrun were probably planning on babysitting the campsite, but in reality I'm sure he figured that with you tagging along with me, I'd be fine," She said hopefully as they made it to where the waterfall was roaring into the stream below.

"Or he didn't run away from Dearka as fast as he possibly could because he's too retarded," Yzak said under his breath.

"What was that Yzak?" Lacus questioned sweetly not knowing what he really said about her significant other.

"I said he was probably just staying there to…uhm…help get the fire started…yeah…the fire." Yzak stuttered for words as he looked in all directions.

"Maybe," Lacus agreed. "Hey look! I think I see steam coming up from in between those two cliffs!" Lacus exclaimed as she pointed to in between where the cliffs left off behind the waterfall.

"Hey, maybe their hot springs," Yzak suggested as he saw where Lacus was pointing.

"Let's go check it out," Lacus stated as her and Yzak ran over to where they saw the steam.

Their assumption was correct, there were two decent sized hot springs there with a rock separating it into two sections.

"Wow, this'll be perfect, this way Milly and Dearka won't kill each other and we can all have some privacy, you know, the girls and the guys can get away from each other," Yzak was the first to speak as Lacus went over to stick the tip of her toes in the water.

"You're right, and the water is perfect. We should go back and let the others know," Lacus called out from the bank of the hot springs.

"We have to find drinking water first. Wait a minute, if there are hot springs here, then there should be regular springs around her somewhere that we can draw some water from," Yzak pointed out as the two of them turned in all directions to see if they could find anything.

At the same time, Yzak and Lacus saw the same thing at the same time. They could both just barely make out what looked like a stream running through the woods that was coming from the general direction of the hot springs, they just weren't connected.

"Wow, maybe our luck only sucks when Dearka's around," Yzak joked, but kind of thought it was true.

The two made their way over to the stream of water as Lacus once again put her toes into the water.

"Well, it's definitely freezing," She said as she pulled her foot quickly from the water upon touching it.

"So, how do we get the water from the stream, back to the campsite?" Yzak popped the question they were both dreading to hear.

"We'll need to find something to put it in, but I have no idea what we could use," Lacus said quietly as she sulked slightly.

"We should've left this to the smarter people," Yzak whined as he plopped himself down on a hollow tree stump almost falling in.

"What smarter people?" Lacus pointed out knowing very well that none of the people that they were with were very good with these kinds of situations.

Sure they were all good at navigating their way through space and such, but none of them ever got lost in a jungle before, well maybe Athrun and Cagalli, but that was when they had _some_ supplies and _some_ brains, now that the war was over, they were all pretty much used to sitting around being lazy-bums.

Lacus's attention was then drawn to where Yzak was sitting, the tree stump to be exact, the hollow tree stump. Yzak eventually caught on to this staring contest and spoke up awkwardly.

"Are you looking at my butt?"

"No, NO! I'm looking gat the tree stump that's under your butt though." Lacus shouted back blushing like mad.

"What do you have in mind?" Yzak spoke up quietly.

"I hope no one else is listening to this conversation because if they are then they are going to see it going in the complete wrong direction." Lacus looked around half expecting Kira to jump out of a bush yelling 'WHERE DID I GO WRONG!'

"Anyway, where were you going with the whole staring at the tree stump thing?" Yzak helped the both of them get back on track.

"I think we might be able to use that to put our water in. If we find some really big leaves and some tree sap we can put a few layers of leaves on the bottom and pour the water into it," Lacus explained as Yzak nodded his head in agreement.

"That's sounds like it just might work, now, let's find some leaves." Yzak started looking on the ground for leaves, but considering that it was the spring, there were no leaves on the ground.

"Oh boy," Yzak said as he realized what had to be done.

He turned around to see Lacus smiling at him devishly.

"What are you thinking?" He asked uneasily.

"I'm thinking that you need to start climbing buddy," Lacus stated as she took a step closer to Yzak causing him to back into a tree.

Yzak gulped as Lacus closed in on him.

"This is gonna be one helluva long search for water," Yzak complained as he turned and started to climb the tree.

:Dearka and Milly:

"So, what are we looking for again?" Dearka sounded for the 5th time.

"For the last time Dearka, FOOD!" Milly was basically losing all shapes and forms of patience, even though she didn't have much of it to begin with.

"Well I don't see what the hell we're gonna find in the middle of a jungle," Dearka really wasn't helping the situation.

"Well we have to do something, or else none of us are gonna survive," Milly stated calmly.

"I'm sure we'll find something," Dearka said switching modes from annoying to reasonable; in fact, he did it so fast it's scary.

"You have to be the most bi-polar person I have ever met, except you go from annoying to helpful instead of, well here's a metaphor, instead of pulling an Yzak," Milly explained the ups and downs of Yzak Joule in a more subtle manner, but while she was doing this, Dearka, of course, wasn't paying attention, and started walking towards a tunnel with light at the end.

"Hey, Dearka, where are you going?" Milly questioned as she followed Dearka.

"There's a light over there," Dearka pointed into the direction that he was looking in.

"Hey, you're right," Milly said finally seeing what Dearka was talking about.

"I was wondering when I'd see the tunnel with a bright light at the end," Dearka said as he was almost mesmerized by the light.

"Dearka,"

"Ouch," Dearka cried out and broke his stare to examine his arm where Miriallia just smacked him.

"Let's go find out if we found a way of this mess," Milly cried back to him as she ran towards the tunnel.

"Hey, Milly wait up!" Dearka ran after her as they both approached the tunnel.

It turns out that it wasn't much of a tunnel, it was only 5 feet long, and what was on the other side of it, wasn't a way out, but about a 300 foot drop off with trees spouting out everywhere pretty much covering their view.

"Holy shit, this is one sick drop off," Dearka said seemingly finding his voice.

"These trees are HUGE," Milly gawked at the oversized trees as they both stood on the edge.

The trees were only a little bit taller than the ledge they were standing on, but they were still humungous.

"Look, they have fruit in them, weird looking fruit, but hey, it's still food," Dearka pointed to a strange looking fruit that looked kind of like a cross of an apple and a strawberry.

"Nice job Dearka, now how do we get to the fruit?" Milly asked while looking around for a tree branch she could jump on or something.

"We swing form these vines," Dearka said while grabbing hold of a vine hanging from one of the trees.

"Age before beauty." Milly announced nominating Dearka to do the honors first.

"You suck," Dearka retorted but then jumped off the ledge with his vine.

"WOOHOOHOO!"

"Dearka you asshole, wait until I get over there you jerk!" Milly yelled out as Dearka landed on one of the oversized tree branches.

"Come on now, it's your turn," Dearka called over to Milly from his branch.

"Is it sturdy?" she called back nervously.

Dearka gave the vine a nice tug to show Milly that it was ok.

"If it can hold me than it can hold me," Dearka pep talked her so that she would make it over without trial.

"Alright, but if I die, I'm suing you," Milly called out before Dearka swung the vine back to her so that she could grab a hold of it.

Milly kicked off of the ledge that she was standing on and felt herself fall a few feet and then from there on out she felt like she was flying. With a scream she felt herself land on something solid, and when she opened her eyes she realized that it was a tree branch next to Dearka's tree.

"Wow, that was fun," Milly commented as she looked around while letting go of her branch.

"Hey, I can reach some fruit from here," Dearka called out as he stood on his tiptoes and picked one of the strange looking fruits form the branch above him.

"Yeah, but where are we gonna put all of them once we pick them?" Milly asked while searching around.

"Uhm, that's a good one Milly, think you could come up with an answer too?" Dearka questioned as he too looked around hopelessly trying to find an answer to Milly's pressing question.

"Wait, I got it!" Milly suddenly chimed causing Dearka to almost lose his footing.

"What is it Milly, now that you have my attention," Dearka called over to her somewhat annoyed at the fact the he almost got knocked out of a 200 foot tall tree. But the fact that it was Milly that almost knocked him out of a 200 foot tall tree made it all the more while.

"We can weave the vines together to make a basket," was Milly's reply as Dearka lit up at the idea.

"That might actually work, let's do it," Dearka agreed as he grabbed a vine and examined it closely, Milly almost thought he was onto something.

"So, how do we do this again?" Dearka asked as Milly sighed heavily form the other tree.

"You have to get the vine off of the tree branch first, and then we'll worry about the more complicated part later." Milly answered while pulling on her vine very roughly.

"Okey dokey artichokey,"

"How did I get paired with this one?" Milly asked out loud as she looked up to the sky for some sign. Maybe a flash of light, a mass gaggle of birds, or possibly a bolt of lighting that would coincidentally hit her and knock her out of the tree she was now standing in next to the dumbest person on earth and put away her misery with her death.

But unfortunately, god wasn't on her side that day and just rewarded her with the happy chirps of birds and the beautiful blue sky before her.

"The one day I need it to be stormy and raining out it's not, what the hell," Milly practically whined as she found an edge from a broken tree branch and began to saw off her vine.

Luck y for her Dearka caught on to her technique and did the same as she did by pulling his vine down and using a sharp edge of his tree to sever it off.

"Wow Dearka, did you start doing that all by yourself?" Milly teased as she pulled her vine in half and started sawing off the next half.

"Two words Milly…Get naked," Dearka replied getting slightly off subject, but only slightly.

"Dearka, what does that have to do with the situation?"

"Nothing, I just always wanted to use that as a comeback, but I never had the balls to do it, but right now, you're out of reach so you can't beat the living piss out of me until- ouch!"

"That's what you think, buddy," Milly retorted happily as she watched the fruit she just threw at Dearka bounce off of his head.

"What is with you and throwing fruits at me, first at your house you throw an apple at me, and now a freaking- a freaking STRAPPLE!"

"A what?" Milly questioned her eye almost visibly twitching.

"A strapple, the stupid things look like apples and strawberries so now they're officially strapples," Dearka explained actually making sense for once.

"That's actually pretty catchy, it's gonna take awhile to explain it to the others, but they'll get it eventually.

"Ok, now let's concentrate on what we're doing here," Dearka ended their little war so that they could get back to the campsite as quickly as possible.

"Well aren't you little Mr. smart ass today," Milly retorted with a laugh while Dearka smiled widely at her.

:Mu, Murrue and Cagalli:

"Do you two realize that we've been walking for a half hour looking for firewood when firewood's really out hunting for us because there's far more wood around here than us?" Mu was the one to break the almost peaceful silence around them.

"Yup," Both of the women replied at the same time in monotone.

"Ok then, next question, when are we going to stop and get some of this firewood?"

"Eventually," Cagalli replied for both her and Murrue.

Mu finally gave up and there was silence again. Then Cagalli spoke up.

"Ugh, this silence is driving me mentally in sane, we need to do something,"

Silence again.

"How about…Simon Says?"

"Simon Say's?" Mu and Murrue questioned the blonde.

"What do we look like we're 5?" Mu asked bizarrely.

"Oh, believe me, no 5 year old has ever played Simon Say's like me before," Cagalli answered devishly.

"Ok, we'll do it, but on one condition-

"No conditions Mu, this is an all out war," Cagalli snapped back cutting him off.

"You didn't let me finish, I was going to say that on the condition that you lose and we win," Mu answered back.

"Not a chance, your done Mu La Flaga," Cagalli said while glaring at Mu.

"You're on, Cagalli Yula Atha," Mu replied with just as much enthusiasm as Cagalli.

Murrue just continued walking trying to figure out what she just got dragged into.

"Ok, I'll start," Cagalli decided.

"Mu, Simon says…go lick a tree,"

"Which one?" Mu answered back confidently.

"I don't care, just pick one, there's only about a million of them around here," Cagalli replied back.

"Alright, but, couldn't you have done a better job than that?" Mu questioned, taunting the young princess.

"Oh, don't worry Mu, I'm just getting warmed up, unless you want me to fire it up with my inner Cagalli?" She question while grinning widely, she almost looked kind of, well, devilish.

Mu just shrugged his shoulders and went over to a tree and licked it. Murrue giggled feverishly at him as he walked back spitting out the bits of bark and dirt that came off on his tongue.

"What are you laughing at, princess? You're next," Mu stated bluntly using one of her pet names he liked to use as well.

Murrue's grin suddenly slid off of her face as Cagalli looked back at her smiling.

"Murrue,"

Murrue shivered at the way Cagalli said her name.

"Simon says…lick Mu,"

"What is with you and people licking things?" Mu question amused.

"I'm taking it easy on you people," Cagalli answered back. "Let's go Murrue, we're waiting.

Murrue looked over at Mu for help, but he just looked back at her with that cocky grin of his as if to say, 'I'm waiting.' She made her way over to him as they all stopped and waited for Murrue to do her thing.

"Where do you want me to lick him?" Murrue asked choking back a laugh at how funny that sounded.

"You really don't want me to make that decision for you," Cagalli answered back.

"Murrue for the love of god don't you even think f letting her make that decision for you.

"Don't worry Mu, you don't have to worry about me letting her decide on that one, I'm smarter than that.

"Good, now let's get this over with," Mu coaxed her as she moved only a breath away from his face.

She poked her tongue out and licked his check as quickly as possible and then started walking again with a blush on her cheeks.

"I can't believe I just let a 16 year old talk me into licking my boyfriend," Murrue stated as she continued walking as Mu and Cagalli laughed from behind her.

"Ok, now it's you turn Mu," Cagalli announced as they all started walking as a group again.

"Uh oh," Mu gulped as Cagalli started thinking again.

"Hmm…Simon Say's…Smack Murrue's ass,"

MU and Murrue exchanged a look before Cagalli turned around and walked backwards so that she could watch this one.

"Why did you have to drag me into this one?" Murrue whined to Cagalli as she snickered.

"What, you don't want me to?" Mu teased, but half of him really wanted to.

Murrue could only blush as Mu closed in on her. Mu brought his arm back as if to wind up his arm up to pitch a ball, then in one swift sudden movement, Mu snapped his arm forward and made contact with Murrue 's butt causing a log 'whack' to emit and echo around them.

"OUCH!" Murrue yelped as she covered up her butt with her hands. "Did you have to do it so hard?' Murrue asked while her eyes started to water from the stinging sensation now running up and down her body.

"You know it's kind of weird knowing that I just whipped the former captain of the vessel I was aboard for more than a year right in the ass," Mu replied while rubbing his now tingling hand.

"I'm sure you'll get over it," Murrue said while giving him her famous, 'You're so done' look.

Mu just laughed as they kept walking.

"Ok, next…I think we'll do this one and then one more and then we can get some firewood," Cagalli announced while Mu and Murrue sighed in relief.

"Which means that these last two will be the best," Cagalli stated proudly.

Mu and Murrue then stopped celebrating and started going over the possibilities of what Cagalli could have in mind.

"Murrue…Simon Say's…make out with Mu,"

Murrue looked form Cagalli, then over to Mu, then back to Cagalli, then she turned looked at Mu and closed the space between him and her and kissed him on the lips. She figured that she could just do this as fast as possible and then be done with it. Bu oh, how wrong she was. Once her lips touched is, there was no turning back for poor Murrue, she couldn't help but to let her lips mold with his for just a little while longer. She didn't realize how involved they were really getting until her senses picked up him kissing her back. They were indeed making out.

OK, OK! Simon says stop! That's enough making out for one day thank you very much!" Cagalli sounded from somewhere on the sidelines of their tonsil hockey match.

The trio was so caught up in _other _things that they didn't realize how dense the jungle was getting. Either that or they didn't care, or at least two out of the three didn't care. Once Cagalli noticed this she stopped to catch Mu and Murrue's attention. But before she could say anything, they all heard a strange noise come from the bushes they were standing next to.

"Wh-what was that?" Cagalli stuttered nervously as the noise sounded again.

"I have no idea," Mu answered back as he held Murrue just a little bit tighter.

"I don't know either, but I don't think I want to stay here long enough to find out, let's get outta here and go find fire wood somewhere else," Cagalli concluded as she started to walk the other way.

"But you didn't say Simon says," Mu replied smartly.

Then the noise again.

"SIMON SAYS RUN LIKE HELL!" Cagalli called out as she started running away in the other direction.

"Hey wait for us!" Mu yelled as he grabbed Murrue by the waist and dragged her along with him.

:Athrun and Kira:

"So, Athrun, how ya' doin'?" Kira asked boredly as they both sat on a log and stared at the ground.

"For the 50th time Kira, I'm peachy, just peachy, even though we're stuck in a FLUPPING JUNGLE WITH ONLY GOD KNOWS HOW MANY BLOOD THIRSTY ANIMALS HUNTING US DOWN AS WE SIT HERE HELPLESSLY AND STARE AT EACH OTHER! Although I still feel like we should be doing something about it, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I'm feelin ya," Kira answered back in monotone as he continued to stare at the ground.

Kira and Athrun both sighed simultaneously.

"Jesus Christ what the hell are we gonna do with ourselves until everyone gets back?' Athrun asked while he looked over to Kira for an answer.

"We could play "let's guess what Athrun's been doing with my sister lately," Kira suggested as he looked over at Athrun who in turn blushed like mad.

"We havn't done anything like _that_ yet, honest!" Athrun defended.

"Hmm," Kira thought about this one for a minute.

"Kira, you can't honestly tell me that you don't believe your best friend!" Athrun was starting to get worried about this one.

"Don't worry, I trust you, it's not my place to control what you both do in your time together, but it is my place to worry sometimes."

"Don't worry Kira, I take good care of her, I would never let anything happen to her, partially because she's your sister and the other half because I love her, you really have nothing to worry about,"

"Yeah, I know your right, but I can't help it sometimes, it's almost like an instinct. Even when I fist saw her at Morgenrate when I shoved her into one of the escape shuttles, I couldn't shake this feeling that I had the was telling me something bad was gonna happen to her," Kira explained.

"It's probably one of those freaky twin deals," Athrun smiled.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Kira agreed.

"So, what do you think about Milly and Dearka?" Athrun stated abruptly changing the subject.

"I think they're gonna get together by the end of this little adventure," Kira predicted while Athrun nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, not to mention how they're alone in the woods doing hell knows what right now," Athrun almost cringed at the thought of it all, but then his better half took over and told him that Dearka would probably be doing the cringing the way Milly beats him every day.

"Too bad Milly's probably beating him to a pulp right about now for singing that creepy song," Kira shivered at the memory.

"You must've read my mind," Athrun laughed as Kira eventually joined in after shaking of the remnants of Dearka's song.

"That reminds me, what about Mu and Murrue?" Athrun brought up the subject of a new couple after getting bored with the other one.

"They're a pretty tight knit couple, they'll be married by the end of the year," Kira smiled at the thought.

"Isn't it weird though?" Athrun though out loud.

"Yeah, try having them as your former superior officers, it's even weirder knowing that The commander and the captain, my practically older brother and sister, together, it's strange when you think about it, but then you look at them as a couple, and you're really not so confused anymore,"

"That must be different, you don't see that everyday, and they say those war relationships never last, well I guess they proved that theory wrong. They been through some tough times, really tough times, but look at them now, they're even stronger than before," Athrun contemplated as Kira cooked up another good topic.

It's really too bad Athrun beat him to it.

"So, how's life with my ex-fiancé?" Athrun grinned devishly at Kira who tried to hide the splash of crimson on his cheeks.

"Pretty good I guess, actually, things have been getting along pretty well with us,"

"Glad to hear it," Athrun said instead of teasing him.

He really did think they made a great couple, and he's glad that they found each other, they're a perfect match, both of them are shy and yet assertive when needed, and they're both gentle and kind hearted.

Athrun and Kira were about to go on with their conversation when a rustling in the bushes interrupted them.

"What the- Athrun began but before he could finish, 3 figures popped out of the bushes.

"Mu," Athrun sighed relieved.

"What, I didn't scare you did I?" Mu asked amused.

"…NO!"

"Whatever you say," Mu teased.

"I wasn't, honest!"

Mu just walked the other way with Murrue and plopped himself down on a log, his damaged leg from his little encounter with Yzak's newest buddy was really starting to take its toll on him. He let out a grunt of pain as his leg shot a few jolts of pain clean up to his brain when he sat down.

"You okay?" Murrue questioned at his sudden cry of pain.

"Fine, it's just this leg of mine isn't doing as well as it should be,"

"Maybe we should look at it again?" Murrue suggested.

Mu almost agreed, but then the sudden memory of what happened the last time he let her have a look at it came zipping back into his mind setting off alarms in his head.

"No thanks, I think I'll just wait until Lacus or Miriallia come back, and have one of them look at it" Mu concluded while smiling innocently at her.

She had a visibly hurt yet amused face on, and he knew she was laughing her pretty little ass off at him inside.

"So what do we do now?" Cagalli asked while approaching Athrun and her brother.

"Wait here for Lacus, Yzak, Dearka, and Milly to return," Athrun replied back casually as he moved over to let Cagalli squeeze herself in between him and Kira.

"I wonder what they're all up to." Kira wondered aloud as he looked up at the warm spring sky.

"I don't know, but I do know that I can't sit here any longer, I'm going to go for a walk, anyone want to come along?" Athrun asked but only got shaking heads in return, except for one.

"I'll go with you, Athrun," Cagalli spoke up as she sat up and Athrun grabbed her hand to help her over the pile of firewood she left there after her little hunt with Mu and Murrue. Of coarse she was the idiot that got stuck carrying it all.

As the duo walked away and out of sight, Mu and Murrue both got up to go sit next to Kira. Mu put an arm around his shoulder sand gave him a nuugie ruffling his already disheveled head of hair.

"Thanks a lot Mu, like it's not already screwed over enough," Kira replied sarcastically as he ran a hand over his hair to try and help flatten it out.

"Hey, no problem kid," Mu answered back with a big toothy grin behind it.

"So how have you been?" Murrue started changing the subject.

"I guess I've been alright, and you?" Kira replied back naturally.

"I've been pretty good myself,"

They both realized a change in Kira. Ever since Mendel, he's been a different person, stronger, more independent. Not hat it was a bad change, it was just…different. Mu of course, knew what was going on, but Murrue wasn't as clear on things, Mu hadn't exactly given her a full detailed story because he respected Kira's privacy and figured he would tell her sooner or later.

"So Kira, what exactly, did happen on the colony?" Murrue questioned gently knowing that it was a fragile topic.

Kira sighed, he knows she deserves to know about it, she was after all, like a mother to him, more like a sister than anything though; she was there for him whenever he needed her, and right now, he needed her. He let out a raspy sigh and began his story.

:Lacus and Yzak:

"Hey Yzak, how are ya' doing' up there?" Lacus called up to Yzak who was currently in a pretty decent sized tree ripping off the oversized leaves and letting them drop at the trunk of the tree where Lacus stood patiently watching a pile of leaves accumulate at the bottom of the tree.

"I think I'm stuck," He replied back annoyed while smacking the tree branch that snagged him with his free hand.

"Oh boy," Lacus sighed while putting her face in her palm.

"Well, I don't know what to do, looks like your stuck," Lacus announced amused.

"You have got to be kidding me, and I thought you were the sane one!"

Yzak flailed his arms with his statement causing the tree branch that was stuck to his sleeve to whip him in the face. He then jerked the branch forward and then let it go causing it to hit him in the face all over again. He then kicked at the branch causing him to lean back and unfortunately for him right out of the tree. He fell to the ground with an "AHH OOMPH SHIT!" kind of deal. Yes, it really sucked to be Yzak Joule today.

"Wow, either your luck just doesn't work, or god really _really_ hates you today," Lacus spoke up as Yzak picked up his head and blew a leave out of his face.

"Thanks for that evaluation Lacus," Yzak spit out as he slowly picked himself up off the ground muttering something along the lines of _"I'm gonna feel that one in the morning…if I make it till then,"_

Lacus just laughed at him as she walked over to his pile of leaves.

"Well I'm sure that his should be enough," She spoke as she looked over his pile, it was about a foot high, so it should be plenty of leave to hold in a little bit of water, ok make that a lot but still, they would manage.

Lacus picked up a leaf and walked over to examine the tree

Lacus picked up a leaf and walked over to examine the tree Yzak had just fallen out of to find a stream of sap, unfortunately, there was none on that particular tree.

"There's no sap," Lacus almost whined.

Just before Yzak could speak, he heard what sounded kind of like a pecking noise.

"Hey Lacus, did you hear that?" Yzak asked, but Lacus was already walking past him to the tree that was sitting behind him.

Then they both heard the sound again.

"It's a wood pecker!" Lacus announced happily.

"Yeah, so?" Yzak didn't know where she was going with this.

"Yzak, didn't you learn anything when you were in school?"

"…No,"

"Woodpeckers peck around their nest so that the sap comes out, that way tree snakes and other predators can't get them," Lacus explained her freshman experience back in high school as best as she could.

"And?" Yzak was apparently still lost.

"We need the sap!" Lacus finally lost all of her patience with Yzak.

"…Oh, oh, oh, okay…I got it now, I got it," Yzak's light bulb finally went off. "What re you looking at me like that for? Oh no, there is no way in hell I'm climbing another one of these damn things, not a chance,"

………………………………….5 minutes later……………………………………..

"I can not believe you got me to climb one of these trees again," Yzak moaned as he rubbed the leaf in his hand against the pooling sap.

"Stop whining, you're almost done, there're only a few more leaves down here," Lacus called up to Yzak.

In the 5 minutes that Yzak wa in the tree, he'd managed to burn through the pile of leaves that now sit spread out across the forest floor next to Lacus covered in the sticky brown goo.

"Last one," Lacus announced as she handed the leaf to Yzak.

Yzak was just about to cover the leaf with the sap when he heard a loud chirping noise coming at him from the front. It didn't take him long to realize that it was the wood pecker coming back. Yzak went to quickly smear the leaf in the sap and be on his way, but the wood pecker was too fast. It came at him and paned on a branch next to him. It hopped around in all its glory and chirped warnings at him. When Yzak didn't move, the wood pecker then decided to make its move. It jumped at Yzak and tried to peck him right in the head. Yzak leaned forward and stuck his hand and the leaf in the sap, causing the leaf to get stuck to his hand. Yzak then jumped backward…right out of the tree. He, for the second time in 10 minutes, fell to the ground loudly.

"Well, at least the wood pecker left you alone," Lacus tried to make the situation better but it wasn't helping.

"Hey, Lacus?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up,"

:Dearka and Milly:

The duo had managed to make two decent sized makeshift baskets filled with really weird fruits, but they would have to do. They were all starving so they didn't care what the hell they ate, as long as it was food and it tasted good.

"So, Mr. Brightside, how do we get back over to there?" Milly asked as she pointed to the ledge that they had both formally swung from about an hour before.

"We, grab the vine with one hand like so," Dearka gestured as he grabbed onto one of the vines. "And hold the basket with the other hand like this," Dearka wrapped his whole arm around the vines that held his fruit.

"Woah, wait, you're not going anywhere without me this time," Milly announced as she grabbed onto a vine and tucked her basket underneath her arm just as Dearka did.

"Ok, now we can go," Milly told Dearka as she readied herself to swing.

Both her and Dearka stood on the edge of their tree branch and leaned forward a little bit.

"Ok, on the count of 3 Milly, 1-2-3!" Both Dearka and Miriallia jumped at the same time swinging swiftly towards their destination.

Everything was ok until they both realized that they were too high up and weren't level with the opening to the tunnel that led back into the forest.

"OH MAN!" Milly cried out as they both neared the wall.

They got closer, and closer, and a little bit closer until, WHAM! The two of them smashed clean into the wall and slowly let go of their vines as they slid down to the ground, their fruit rolling around pooling underneath them. They both landed with a thud as they lay there for awhile.

"Ouch, that had to have been the worst idea I have ever had my entire 16 years of life," Dearka was the first to speak up from his not so cozy spot on the ground.

"You got that right, I can't believe I actually thought that would work," Milly agreed with Dearka as they both slid up off the ground.

Milly tried to push herself into a sitting position. But a shooting pain in her wrist prevented her form doing so. Dearka noticed her struggle and quickly pulled himself to his feet and helped Milly up.

"What's wrong?" He questioned worriedly.

"My wrist, I did something to it," Milly explained he she got her balance.

"Let me see," Dearka reached out to grasp her arm when she pulled back abruptly.

"No, it hurts,"

"Mir, let me see your wrist,"

"No,"

"Yes,"

"No,"

"MILLY!"

"It's all your fault anyway!"

"My fault! How is this my fault?"

"You're the smart one that made us swing gracefully into a cave wall!"

"Hey, you're the one that hurt your wrist, I had no problems with the crash into the wall."

Milly finally gave in as Dearka looked her wrist over.

"Does this hurt?"

"OUCH!"

"I think you might have sprained it, you can still move it, just hurts right?"

"Yeah,"

Dearka looked around, and then let go of Milly's arm, and then found the whole that the tree branch had snagged him before by the quicksand and ripped it off. He grabbed Milly's wrist again and wrapped the cloth tightly around her wrist.

"There, good as new, almost," Dearka stated proudly, and then realized how close he was to Milly.

They were almost nose to nose, but neither of them were moving. Without even blinking Dearka spoke.

"So, are you ok now?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," Milly answered back, exhaling lightly causing her breathe to tease Dearka's face, causing the hair on the back of his neck to rise.

"We should really be getting back," Dearka had no idea why he of all people just ruined that moment.

"Yeah," Milly answered back as she slowly inched away form Dearka.

The two both kneeled down, picked up their fruit, and were on their way.

:Athrun and Cagalli:

"So, Cagalli, how have been?" Athrun broke the silence between the two as he reached over cautiously and grabbed Cagalli's hand and started to swing both of their arms back and forth.

"I'll ignore the whole us getting lost in the woods thing an answer that. I'm peachy, how are you?"

"I'll also avoid the whole us lost in a forest situation. I'm pretty good as well,"

"Well that's good, I'm glad to hear it," Cagalli answered back, letting Athrun have his way with her arm.

"So, I wonder how Milly and Dearka are doing?" Athrun wondered aloud as they continued to walk further into the woods.

"Heh, Milly probably abandoned Dearka after being driven verbally insane and left him in the woods to die," Cagalli almost laughed at the thought.

"You have quiet the vivid imagination Ms. Atha," Athrun concluded after hearing Cagalli's version of a good idea, starting to wonder if that's what she would do to him.

"Thank you Mr. Zala, it sounds like quiet the plan," Cagalli decided to play his little game.

"Really, now why would you do something like that?

"Gee, I don't know, maybe because a man by the name Athrun Zala is currently clinging to me, and would be worth getting rid of,"

"I'm hurt," Athrun pretended to pout.

"I'm sure you are Romeo, you just keep complaining and maybe Yzak's bear will come to sooth your soul," Cagalli laughed out loud as Athrun came to a halt and turned to face her.

She stopped laughing immediately upon seeing his dead serious no jokes face.

"But really Cagalli, I'm glad I'm here with you right now, and I just wanted to tell you how much I care,"

"A-Athrun?"

"Cagalli, I love you,"

Before Cagalli could protest any further, he pressed his lips to hers cutting off her words. Cagalli just stood there and did the only thing that she could, kissed him back.

:Mu, Murrue, and Kira:

Kira had just finished up his story that he was telling Murrue. Mu had moved over to the log next to them, not being able to withstand the memories that his story brought back. Kira and Murrue however, hadn't moved and inch. Murrue looked sadly into Kira's heartbroken eyes as he shifted uncomfortably. Murrue didn't know what to say, so she wrapped her arms around him allowing him to rest his head on her shoulders.

"It's alright now Kira, you don't have to say anymore," Murrue soothed as she rubbed the back of his head.

Kira felt the tears that he had been holding back for so ling start to burn streams down his face. He let them come freely, warmly excepting them as they came. He cried into Murrue's arms, not regretting a single tear. Murrue felt him crying, she could feel his tears dripping onto her bare neck and run down along her chest. She looked over to Mu, as looking for an answer as to what to do, but he currently had his face buried in his hands, the story Kira told had an impact on him as well, so she just stayed silent.

Things stayed deathly quiet for only about 5 more minutes until Kira perked up and Mu picked up his head to look over to Murrue and Kira. The silence, however, was broken when they heard footsteps followed by a loud thump from behind them. They all turned around to see none other then Lacus and Yzak.

With a little bit of trial, ok a lot, the duo had managed to get Yzak off of the ground, to make the wood pecker screw off, the leaves stuck to the bottom of the tree trunk, as well as themselves, and the water put into the tree trunk.

"What happened to you guys?" Mu asked the question all three of them were itching to ask.

"Don't ask," Lacus sighed heavily as she plopped down onto the tree trunk, nearly knocking herself into the water.

Everyone turned to Yzak.

"We met a wood pecker ok? So just lay off," The hot headed teen spat as he plopped himself onto the ground.

None of the others dared to ask, so they just let it go figuring that they would hear from it sometime down the line.

"Well, there is a good half to the story," Lacus announced.

Everyone's questioning glance urged her to continue.

"We found a hot spring," She said as excitedly as someone who was lost in the woods with Yzak for 2 hours could possibly be.

Everyone stood up at one, "You did!"

"Yes,"

"Well then let's do it!" Mu pumped a fist in the air as they all made to start walking in the direction that Yzak and Lacus came from.

"You're not planning on leaving without us are you?" A familiar voice came from where they were just about to head.

"No, of course not little sis," Kira teased the blonde ball of anger.

"Hey, I'm older!" She whined.

Everyone laughed at the two siblings as they duked it out with twigs form the ground.

"What hot springs?" Came another voice came from beside them all.

"The ones that we were planning on not telling you about," Yzak said sarcastically.

"Well some ones had a bad day lost in the woods now hasn't he?" Dearka grinned widely at his long time friend and ally.

"Humor me," Yzak replied back turning to push the group forward.

Dearka and Milly set down their baskets full of fruit and moved towards the group.

"Hey, Milly, what happened to your wrist?" Lacus asked as they began walking.

"Dearka had an idea," Milly glared over at Dearka.

"Well that must've ended bad," Yzak laughed, but he was serious.

"Shut up, at least I have a girlfriend…that isn't 7 feet tall and full of fur,"

"HEY!"

The group continued to walk towards the hot springs, looking forward to relax a little. They laughed and joked all the way there, oblivious to the eyes that were watching them from the bushes behind.

:And that's where I stop for now! I hope you all enjoyed the update! I'm sorry it took so long.

MU REMEMBERED! MU REMEMBERED! MU FRIGGEN REMEMBERED! Omg you all do NOT know how happy I am about this You'd have to be a hard core Mu X Murrue fan to understand this! I cant believe it! Ok…:regains composure:twitches: so I hoped that I got on with storyline in this chapter with they eyes in the bushed and such…hehehe…cliffy's are my specialty…even though I hate the with a passion…so here are my shout outs… you guys know the drill…any spelling errors or life threatening mistakes…just let me know…xD see you guys later!

**Kari480: here's your DxM fluff! Enjoy xD**

**shinycry: I'm glad that everything is ok now…and I put some AxC fluff in there just for you! I hope you enjoy and continue to read this fic! And if ever you need anything or want to request something…feel free ;)**

**Rakusu Klein: ehehe…nope…no Lacus and Yzak for you…lol…maybe I will throw some fluff on just for you…but I will warn you that of course…the Kira and Lacus pairing will continue to reign dominant! I hope you enjoyed this chapter:3**

And to the rest of you that reviewed…thank you and please continue to do so…I also encourage suggestions and ideas…so if you have any…run them by me and I'll make them work…because I am one for making the impossible possible xD

Mu: "Hey, that's my line!"

lith: "Shut up!" :hits Mu with tree branch:

Mu: "Hey those are my waffles," :passes out:

Murrue: "Oh boy,"

lith: "I'm feelin' ya' there,"

lith and Murrue:walk off whistling:


	6. Run, Run They're After You

:hey guys…I hope none of you have given up on me…its been quite awhile…but IM BACK! So its all good…so anyway…this is the hot spring chapter im hoping you've all been waiting for…its not going to disappoint you…ill tell you that right now…things will get just a touch...how do you say…intimate if you know what I mean ;) if not…allow me to explain…wet…naked…Murrue, Milly, Cagalli, Lacus, Mu, Dearka, Yzak, Athrun, and Kira…hmm…the trouble I can start with this...brace yourselves…here it is…we'll start off nice and easy…a nice dramatic beginning…to a very wild chapter…lets do it:

wow i actually remembered the disclaimer: they're not mine...but Yzak's bear is ;)

* * *

"WOW! This is amazing!" Milly exclaimed as she looked over the vast expanse of hot springs. 

Mu let out a long whistle while Murrue rested her head on his shoulder. Mu noticed the weight on his shoulder and turned to face Murrue. She had her eyes closed and she looked more tired than usual. Mu waited for the others to go gallivanting off while kicking off shoes and socks and other articles of clothing on to the ground. The girls waited until the guys were all stripped down and in the water before they slipped behind the part of the rock dividing the hot springs through the middle that jutted of onto the land so that they could strip and dive in. Mu then took the opportunity to nudge Murrue.

"What's wrong?" He scanned over the hot springs quickly before returning his gaze to her.

"Nothing, what makes you ask?" Murrue didn't even open her eyes as she tried to weasel her way out of the situation.

Mu made one last look over the hot springs until he found what he was looking for. Another rock dividing the other two parts of the springs where the kids were. He then began to nudge Murrue over to where he wanted them to go. Sweet Solitude.

"Something's wrong, I can tell. You can't lie to me Murrue, I know you so well that it sometimes scares me," Mu wasn't about to lose to her stubbornness today, she was getting to be as bad as him, definitely not good.

"Awe, come on Mu, let's go in _there_ now and talk about _this_ later," She playfully tugged at his sleeve dragging him in the direction of the water.

This is the most she smiled the entire time they were on this whack job adventure, so he couldn't possibly say no. They needed this after all. The couple tripped down to their underwear and boxers. They took a quick glance at each other before pretending not to notice the other. Murrue shyly covered her chest up with her arms, causing Mu to puff his lower lip out slightly in a pout.

"Oh don't give me that, Mu La Flaga, let's go I'm freezing," Murrue commanded sternly while making her way into the water and up against the rock divider to rest her against it.

Not long after did Mu join her as he settled down next to her as he allowed her to rest her head against his right shoulder.

"Now you need to tell me what's going on with you, and don't tell me nothing cuz I know it's not just nothing," Mu was going to continue to badger her until she told him.

"You do recall me getting a concussion, right?" Murrue questioned, swimming circles around the subject Mu wanted to discuss. Her eyes opened lazily to watch the steam rising up and out of the springs.

"Yes, I remember, speaking of which, you shouldn't be sleeping," He realized as he nudged her head off of his arm with his shoulder. She made an unhappy noise when he did this, but he ignored it.

"Murrue," He continued to drag it on, he wasn't letting this one go and he made that clear.

She spoke up, surprising him out of his questioning. "I feel like something bad is going to happen to all of us. The feeling is there nagging at me almost all of the time. It's almost like the feeling alone sucks the life right out of me, but I think the ability to sense it is what takes the energy out from me," She didn't really understand what was happening, and that's part of the reason she didn't want to tell him, but she knows better then to think that he won't get it out of her.

"Kind of like a sixth sense? Like you can feel something you know is there but you just can't see it?" He understood.

"Yeah, it's like it's there, but…not," Murrue answered, and then her eyes suddenly widened. "But how-

"I felt the same thing with Rau Le Cruset, it's like it's another part of you. Do you get headaches when you start to sense something?"

"Yes, but the minute I lose the feeling the headache vanishes," She was amazed yet relieved all at the same time at how he understood exactly what she was going through and how easily he could relate.

Mu looked up at the sky. This was the exact same thing that he had to go trough. But why was it happening to her? Was it because of him? If he was making her suffer because they're together, than what would things be like for her if they weren't? He was causing her pain.

"_Wait, no, stop it right there, Flaga. Do you actually think she'd be happier without you by her side? There's no way in hell I'm leaving her, so whatever's going on we're gonna get through it together,"_ Mu fought with his inner self. He _could _not, _would_ not leave her. Not a chance.

"It scares me, Mu. Like there's something out there that knows I'm here," Murrue looked down, away from his piercing blue gaze.

"It's alright, whatever it is that's out there; it's not going to get to you. I promise you that," Mu soothed, but it only made Murrue shudder.

"It's not that I'm afraid…of whatever is out there, I'm afraid because of what you just said. That you'll protect me, but yet, the last time you tried to save me, you almost…you almost…"

"Murrue,"

"NO, MU! I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself for me anymore! If you're going to fight then-

"Murrue, what do you expect me to do? Sit back and watch you- Murrue held her hand up to silence him.

"If you're going to fight, then I'll be right there next to you, fighting by your side,"

_The day that I first saw tears_

_I couldn't do anything_

_I just gripped your hand_

Mu was amazed as she smiled at him and reached for his hand in the water. He felt her squeeze his hand comfortingly. She trusted him, and that was more than enough to make him happy.

_Tired from crying, about to fall asleep_

_You turned to me and whispered_

"_I'm Sorry," and smiled a little_

"So, how's your leg?" Murrue changed the subject, but neither of them minded. The subject was starting to get stale anyway.

"Actually, it's not bothering me. I'm surprised, I figured it would," He was lying, his leg burnt like a mother the minute he stepped foot in the springs, but he hated making her worry.

"Liar," But she knew, she always knew.

_The reason I couldn't even_

_Say "goodbye" properly was that_

_I got the feeling that I'd_

_See you again. Or…_

"And how's your head?" Mu asked her, repeating her question like an echo, getting even with her.

"AS good as it's going to be given the situation," Murrue answered while looking up at him reassuringly. "It doesn't really bother me anymore,"

"Liar,"

_That day I was first scolded_

_I was speechless I just_

_Hung my head in shame_

* * *

On the other side of the rock, the rest of the crew sat there relaxing in the hot springs, lost in their own minds. The guys, of course, were still regretfully on their own side, while the girls were peacefully on theirs. But you guys weren't actually thinking it would stay like for long, right? 

"There is no way I'm staying on this side of the rock, you all know that right?" Cagalli spoke up as she swam over to the gap where the rock broke off, leaving a hole for her to get to the other side.

"I was waiting for you to say that," Mir relied happily as she followed suit.

"Hey, Lacus, you coming?" Cagalli called out to her from the gap before swimming through to the other side.

"Coming!" Lacus didn't know where this was going, but she was prepared to find out.

Cagalli swam over to Athrun while the other two swam to their respective mates while Yzak just sat alone.

"Athrun!" She yelled excitedly.

"Wh- Cagalli?"

"Hi," She answered back, suddenly shy.

"Hi," He answered back, diverting his gaze.

"What's wrong, Athrun?"

_You turned your back_

_And left the room_

_And made the same wounds in my heart_

"Don't you think it's strange…at how we're just able to relax like this? It feels like it's too good to be true, and like we should be doing something about it," He answered uneasily, hoping Cagalli got his point.

"There's nothing we really _can _do, Athrun, it's not like we can fly out of here. Even if we tried, fly to where? There are just trees for miles and miles, we wouldn't get anywhere," Cagalli went over it in her mind. The chances of them actually being able to make something that would fl, is less than likely, but if for some strange reason they were successful, they'd need a cliff to drop off of.

Cagalli had to stop herself, but the thought wouldn't leave her alone. She'd have to bring it up with the group later. Building a flying machine is better than just sitting there imagining them out of there.

"Cagalli, Woohoo?" Cagalli had been so caught up with her thoughts that she didn't realized Athrun waving his hand in front of her face until her mind caught up with reality. She promptly snatched his hand and pulled it out of her face, and locked her golden orbs with his green ones.

_That's what we were like._

Cagalli and Athrun's faces began to inch closer together slowly. Neither noticed…or maybe they just didn't care. Whichever the case, they were about to initiate in an intimate moment. They were a hairs breath away, caught up in the lusty air surrounding them. They were breathing each others air, gold and green splashing within the other, their reflections in the water next to them. Their just might have been something, _might have_, but of course you can't win if you are Cagalli and Athrun, you just can't.

"Hey, save it for when we _don't_ have to watch!" Dearka's loud voice echoed off of the cliff towering above them. It kind of made them want to strangle Dearka right then and there. One of them could grab his neck and start choking him while the other comes from above and drags him down underneath the surface.

Dearka watched as the same thought crossed across both of their minds. He didn't really know what they were planning but he wasn't sure he wanted to. But, before anyone could hurt Dearka, Milly came over to see what was going on. Upon seeing Athrun and Cagalli, she decided to dig deeper into the matter.

"What did he do now?" So much for digging, things are so obvious when it comes down to Dearka, no digging necessary.

"Nothing," Cagalli and Athrun said at the same time, no use in letting Milly know what they were up to, that might actually suck.

Milly, not interested in pressing the matter any further, grabbed Dearka and pulled him away so that she could continue her conversation with Lacus and Kira. Cagalli and Athrun were left blinking in confusion. Their target there one minute and gone the next.

"Well, now that that moment was ruined," Athrun blurted out mindlessly breaking them out of their trance.

"It's not the first one ruined by king of stupidity," Cagalli nodded her head in agreement to Athrun's statement and her own.

* * *

Meanwhile, with Kira, Lacus, Dearka, Milly, and Yzak, well, let's just say Yzak's having a bad day. All four of them were ganging up on him making fun of his inability to get a girlfriend. It resulted with all of them laughing at him and Yzak splashing the hot water at all of them causing them to laugh even harder. Too bad for Yzak he can't just get up out of the hot springs and leave, if he tried that, the entire group wouldn't stop laughing at him for a long time.

* * *

Moving back to Mu and Murrue, chill out I'm not done with the rest of them yet, their not getting off that easily, not by a long shot. This is gonna get lemony, I will warn you right now. No, not hot naked sex lemony, but the content of it all will be slightly…sexual. 

Mu and Murrue had eventually settled down next to each other. Murrue was sitting in between Mu's legs with her head resting against his chest. He was leaning over her, his chin on the top of her head. Everything was peaceful and calm, that is until Murrue shifted positions and moved her body up against his, which was unfortunate for him. Now he couldn't stop thinking about her wet body sliding up against his. He kept picturing her butt sliding across his groin when she moved. Then when he looked down to shake off these feelings he was getting, he looked straight down into the clear water and saw her chest, her big, hard to miss, very good looking chest. Murrue must not have noticed him freezing up.

"Mu?"

His head shot up from where his vision was glued only moments before. Her eyes, those captivating eyes, and her face, it was way too beautiful to resist, and then his eyes landed on her lips. Her naturally full lips, the lipstick she had on for the party long gone. Before he knew what he was doing, he hungrily covered her mouth with his.

_They meet again somewhere today_

_Those two people who understand each other_

_A tale of lost love_

_Is repeated again_

She was taken aback by this, but only for a few seconds before she opened her mouth so that he could intensify the kiss. She pushed him back into the rock they were once peacefully leaning on so that she could use just as much force as the situation called. Her leg ran in between his legs, causing him to moan into the kiss. They were playing one of their games again.

_The reason I couldn't even_

_Say "goodbye" properly was that_

_I got the feeling I'd see _

_You again. Or…_

Mu responded by sliding a hand up her side until it whispered across her breast, making her fold into his arms, collapsing against him. It was clear she wanted him, and it was even clearer that he wanted her. They continued to grope each other, touch each other, and feel each other. The insane passion of it all could probably kill someone. There's no way it can get any more intense, however. No matter how caught up in the moment they both get. He never goes too far, he never takes her where she doesn't want to go. If she wants to stop, then he stops, no matter how much he wants her, he respects her.

_They meet again somewhere today_

_Those two people who understand each other_

_A tale of lost love_

_Is repeated again_

"I'm glad I met you Mu," Murrue blurted out as they released their hold on each other slightly.

"I don't know where'd I'd be with out you right now," Murrue whispered as she rested her forehead on his, her arms around his shoulders.

"Well you most certainly wouldn't be making out with anyone in a hot springs stranded in the middle of the woods," Mu ruined it.

"Leave it to you to ruin the moment," Murrue smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"It's my job," Mu moved Murrue's hair out of her face.

"Look, another impossible feat made possible by Mu La Flaga," Murrue teased as she moved away from him and made her way to the other side of the hot springs to explore a little.

Mu pouted slightly when she moved away from him, but he stayed where he was, giving her space.

Murrue half swam, half walked where she could stand over to the ledge, she didn't think she'd see much, but when she got to the ledge and looked over, she saw more than just rocks.

"MU, COME OVER HERE!"

Mu was startled out of his daze when he heard her startled voice. He was immediately making his way over to her side.

"What is it, something wrong?" He then followed her gaze and had to swallow a gasp.

Over the ledge was a beautiful opening. There was a waterfall flowing not to far away into what looked like a lake, except far more luxurious. Around the lake was land covered in green grass and flowers, the trees towered above it, leaving little blotches of sunlight here and there.

"It's just like a dream," Murrue mumbled as her eyes scanned over the paradise over and over again.

"I think we need to move camp," Mu couldn't resist the thought of staying down there until they got out of this mess, but suddenly their mess…wasn't so messy anymore.

"We should tell the oth- ahh!" Murrue stopped short and grabbed her head in pain.

"Murrue!" Mu caught her before she fell into the water face first.

"What's wrong?"

"That feeling…its back, but it's different this time. It's never hurt this bad before," She writhed in his arms as he held her.

Mu started to lead her over to the ledge of the springs to get her out of the water. He picked up his white dress shirt from the ground and put it on her. He sat her down in the grass not to far form the water. She dug her nails into his arms in her pain; the sharp bolt through her head was not letting up. He wanted to do something for her, but he knew better than anyone that's it's impossible to stop until whatever she is sensing leaves or is killed. Whatever is hunting them, it's close.

* * *

Back on the other side of the hot springs with the teen heat, Cagalli and Athrun separated themselves from the rest of the group, trying to finish their moment. 

They found themselves on the side the girls originally started on. Cagalli wrapped her arms around Athrun's neck gently. Athrun decided to take advantage of this rare moment of calmness from Cagalli, and rested his hands on her waist. Cagalli brushed her lips against his, if only slightly, causing an involuntary shiver to run up his back. He tried to deepen the kiss, but the stubborn princess was in total control. She intensified the kiss so slowly it was almost painful for the ace pilot. It was officially the slowest make out session he had ever had with the blonde. He still couldn't decide whether or not he liked it more then their usual hungry attacks at each other. He eventually decided it didn't matter to him, as long as he was with her. After a while Cagalli let him feel her up a bit, his hands wandered all over her body, touching her wherever she allowed him too. What he really wanted was to just pick her up and throw her down in the woods and take her right then in there, but he knew that was wishful thinking.

The kiss eventually died down and they both relaxed in the water again. It was blissful silence until Cagalli had an idea.

"Hey, you wanna spy on the rest of them?" She smiled mischievously at Athrun who smiled back in much the same way.

"We got nothing better to do," He answered back while grabbing her hand and pulling her over to the crack in the rock making sure to stay out of sight.

During that time, Dearka and Miriallia managed to slip away into the woods. Dearka insisted that he thought he saw something on their way over to the springs and Milly said she'd investigate on it with him.

Then it was Yzak, Lacus, and Kira. Yzak and Kira still weren't on the best of terms since the war, but they still held a comfortable conversation here and there. Still, Yzak made the decision to explore the rest of the springs, they spread out pretty far, he probably needed some time to collect his thoughts, so no one questioned his leaving, and they'd find him before they left.

Now it was Kira and Lacus time. They were a shy couple, and Athrun and Cagalli knew that, but they were hoping that maybe the shy couples were the ones that did all the crazy shit. No likely, but, they were bored.

"Athrun, move over I can't see,"

"They're just talking; I'll let you know when something good happens,"

"No, Athrun, I wanna see now," Cagalli and Athrun started fidgeting, causing the water to splash and ripple, making Kira and Lacus turn to see what was going on.

Athrun and Cagalli quickly hid behind the rock divider, dead silent. Kira and Lacus shook it off and continued their conversation. Athrun and Cagalli quickly returned to their spots to spy some more. They were satisfied to see the situation becoming more interesting. Kira and Lacus were now facing each other looking into each others eyes, inching closer and closer. Cagalli and Athrun now stopped breathing and stared in awe as the couples lips met in a heart warming kiss. Of course it didn't last long, but it was something. They went in for another kiss, this was making Cagalli and Athrun's day, until that is they both started fidgeting again shoving each other out the others way. This went on for only a little while, it would've went on for longer, that is if they both didn't lose their balance and fall face first into the side of the springs Kira and Lacus were on. The both fell with a huge splash, snapping Kira and Lacus out of their kiss to watch in shock as the pair fell onto their side. Cagalli and Athrun looked up at the same time to meet Kira and Lacus's skeptical gazes.

"Uhm, hi how ya' doin?" Athrun blurted the first that came to his mind out, while Cagalli just face palmed.

While Athrun, Kira, Cagalli, and Lacus sorted out their slight issue, we'll move on to Milly and Dearka.

* * *

Dearka pulled Milly down the path they walked up only a little more than an hour before to get there. He wouldn't tell Mir where exactly they were going, so Milly was getting aggravated with him. She continuously questioned him about where they were going and that if he didn't spill or the surprise wasn't good then he was in trouble, and when Milly said there was gonna be trouble, there was definitely going to be trouble. 

"Ugh, come on Dearka, what could you have possibly seen in this forest? The only things I see are trees and more trees," Milly whined yet again as he continued to hold her by the wrist now dragging her off the path through weeds and flowers.

"Just a few more feet," Dearka muttered, not really knowing if she heard him right.

Milly was just about to come up with another retort, until she saw where he was taking her. It was a small fountain almost. There was a tiny stream babbling into it. It wasn't big at all, it was just the end of a stream, the water having no where else tog o, pooling at the end, getting deeper and deeper as the years pass by. Someday, it will be a lake big enough to take a boat out on, but until that day, this was perfect for the two.

Dearka sat her down on a boulder by the little pond. He let his hand drift across his pocket to make sure it was still there. He then got down on one knee in front of her, causing her to swallow hard, feeling her heart speed up inside of her chest.

"_Is he-_ Milly didn't finish her thought as he pulled the little black box out of his pocket, but before he opened it, he said something that she wouldn't be able to shake off for a long time.

"Miriallia, it's been an honor to be with you. These past 3 months have been…unforgettable to say the least. You have an amazing family, and I'm grateful that you allowed me into your home. There is no way I can ever repay you, but, don't think that will stop me from trying," There was no laugh in his voice. His eyes were dead serious, the cocky air to his personality forced out and far away from him.

He then opened the little black velvet box to reveal a beautiful diamond ring, gold band engraved with tiny flowers, a large orange tinted diamond placed in the center. She felt her breathe get stuck in her throat as she looked at it. He pulled it out, and she could barely make out an _I Love You _engraved on the inside. He slipped it on her right ring finger, and then looked up into her eyes. The look she gave him made him smile; she was demanding an explanation without even opening her mouth.

"A friendship ring, nothing more, nothing less," His reasoning caused her to let out a long sigh. She almost started to think he was proposing to her. That would have been one shock too great for her.

She then realized the sun starting to sink in the sky slightly, it would be dark in a few hours, and they still needed to get back to camp and start a fire and give a taste test to that weird looking fruit her and Dearka had picked earlier that day.

"We should head back, we have some things to do back at camp," Milly spoke up while standing.

"Yeah, I guess your right," Dearka managed with a yawn and a stretch, it wasn't until then he noticed they were both only in their undergarments, although it seemed Milly had forgotten, so he wouldn't embarrass her. He then moved forward and began to walk, until that is she stopped him in his tracks.

"Oh, and Dearka," She moved in and stood right in front of him. "Thank you, for the ring…for everything," She then stood on her tip toes and kissed him on the lips and then just as quickly, left him in her wake, dazed and staring with his mouth hanging open, just like always.

* * *

Back at the springs, Athrun and Cagalli's little quarrel with Kira and Lacus turned into a full force water fight. Lacus, who had been trying to keep her hair dry now gave up on that feat as she splashed water allover Cagalli who was too busy to care. She was too occupied trying to soak her _younger_ brother. It was an all out war. Yzak, who had come back from his venturing, stopped short when he saw the quartet battling it out in the springs. He decided it best to step back a little and watch in amusement from a distance. 

Just as Yzak sat down by a tree in the shade, Milly and Dearka popped out of nowhere, scaring the hell out of Yzak.

"Geeze, give me a little more warning next time!" Yzak exclaimed as he jumped up upon seeing Dearka's feet by his side.

"Sorry man, I didn't even see you there," Dearka replied in a kind manner rather then snapping back at him.

"Well someone's in a good mood," Yzak teased his friend as Dearka flashed his trademark cocky gin at him before moving forward to break up the fight in the springs.

"Ok ladies, parties over, move along please,"

Milly and Yzak chuckled as he returned to sitting on the ground, Milly eventually following suit. It was then that Yzak saw the ring.

"So he finally gave you that thing huh?" He questioned casually as he watched Dearka put Athrun in a headlock.

Milly looked over at him surprised.

"He's been saving up for that thing for a long time now,"

"Really, just how much has he been saving up?" Milly questioned eyeing Yzak as he spoke his next few words, a smirk on his lips.

"Take it from me, if I told you, you'd no doubt go into cardiac arrest,"

Milly smiled as she watched in admiration, the boy that never ceased to amaze her.

* * *

Back with Mu and Murrue, they still sat in the grass, Murrue still in his arms. She was still conscious, surprisingly, considering how much pain she was in not long before. The tears that had begun to fall during her twinge were now dried to her face as she finally lifted her head from his chest. 

"Are you ok?" He questioned, looking deep into her tawny orbs for an answer.

"Yes, I'm alright, Mu, thank you,"

"You think your ok enough to walk back over to see what's going on with the others, I think it's time we to back to camp anyway.

"I'm fine, Mu, have you forgotten what I told you? Once the feeling is gone things are back to normal, I'll be fine until I have another 'attack' we'll put it.

"As long as you're ok," MU eyes her suspiciously until he heard screaming and laughing coming from the other side.

"Come one, let's go se what's going on!" Murrue exclaimed as she pulled Mu along. He went along with her smiling and laughing, but made sure to tuck his concern away where he could regain it quickly, he knew it wasn't the end of those 'attacks' for Murrue, that's for sure.

The minute they got over there they stepped in the water the grass could not absorb, making them leave footprints everywhere.

"What happened here?" MU asked as the girls finished putting on the guys white dress shirts that were formally tossed all over the ground.

"Water war, you can ask Athrun and Cagalli what fueled it," Kira answered while casting a side glance over to his best friend and _younger_ sister.

"I don't think we want to know," Murrue butted in before they heard something they'd live better without knowing.

"I think what Murrue really means is that we should head back to camp, right, Murrue?" Milly winked in Murrue's direction and Murrue winked back seemingly unnoticed by the rest.

"You must've read my mind Milly, let's get back, we still have some unidentifiable fruit waiting for us to test," Murrue reminded slightly cringing at the thought of eating the fruit Milly and Dearka had brought back, it looked really whacked out.

Everyone agreed and moved forward, grabbing their clothes as they went, along the trail that led back to camp. Cagalli, Athrun, Yzak, Kira, and Lacus all trailed behind while Dearka and Mu paired up behind Milly and Murrue.

"Man, we're really scoring good with our ladies aren't we, Mu?" Dearka laughed as he put his hands behind his head.

"Damn straight, kid, damn straight," Mu agreed as he let out a casual sigh.

"I gave her the ring," Dearka announced suddenly serious.

"Bout time," Mu smiled at him and ruffled his hair a bit, then continued to move on in silence, the air suddenly a lot lighter than before.

The whole ring thing was a secret between all the guys. Dearka saved for 2 months before he could afford to buy a ring worth a whole whopping $700. All of the guys offered to help pay for it, but Dearka insisted that he would do it himself, which is exactly what he did. But now that he gave it to Milly, the secret was out. Then again, he knows that the first person she will tell is Murrue, and he knows Murrue wouldn't breathe a word if Milly told her not too.

Milly and Murrue were walking talking about random things and places when Murrue suddenly decided to ask Milly a random question.

"So, how are things with macho man back there?" Murrue asked with some humor referring to Dearka. That was a new habit of hers, she was laid back and joked around a lot more then she had ever done. Milly couldn't decide if that was just how she was outside of the war, or if it was from being around Mu for the past few months, or maybe a combination of both, who knows, which ever the case, she was happy to see the former captain in high spirits, it was good for her.

Milly flashed the ring on her right hand up into Murrue's view. Murrue grabbed Milly's hand to closely examine the ring.

"My god, it's huge! That must've cost him a fortune!" Murrue gasped as she turned to Milly.

"Tell me about it, Yzak told me that if he told me the price that I would have a heart attack, and for some weird reason I believe him," Both women laughed at this as they continued to walk.

Before they all knew it they were back at camp plopping themselves down on random logs and on the ground after tossing their cloths down everywere. All at one time they shifted their gazes over to the piles after piles of fruit.

"So, who's first?" Mu broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Age before beauty," Dearka blurted out.

"Smart ass," Mu muttered under his breath before picking up a weird looking fruit that looked like a cross between a peach and a banana.

"Oh well this should be fun," Yzak smiled a wistful smile as he picked up a fruit that he didn't' know what to compare to. It sort of looked like an apple with grapes stuck to it.

"What the hell happened to this fruit?" Kira questioned as he picked up a mutated one and held it before his eyes.

Before Kira could even guess what he was about to eat, Dearka snatched the fruit out of his hand.

"May I present to you, a strapple,"

"Oh boy," Milly covered her face with her palm. "This is gonna take awhile,"

Everyone eventually had a fruit in their hand, now they had to decide who would be going first.

"Why don't we flip a coin?" Cagalli suggested, eyeing up her strange looking fruit that she really didn't want to eat.

"We could if any of us had a coin to flip," Athrun stated looking down, thinking of an alternative.

They sat for awhile in silence until Kira came up with an idea.

"I have one, why don't we go boy girl from youngest to oldest,"

Mu and Murrue cast happy looks at one another, seeing that they were oldest, they got to see all of the others suffer before them while they sat back and watched.

"That's a good idea, let's do it like that," Lacus nodded her head in agreement, even though she knew that she will end up ultimately being one of the first girls to go.

"Alright," Cagalli spoke up next. "Now we need to find out whose birthday is whose and go through the order.

We'll start with myself, my birthday's on May 28, C.E. 55

"Athrun?"

"October 29, C.E. 55,"

"Dearka?"

"March 29, C.E. 54,"

"Milly?"

"February 7, C.E. 55,"

"Lacus?"

"February 5, C.E. 55,"

"Kira, your birthday is the same as mine, but I'm still older,"

"Mu?"

"November 29, C.E. 43,"

"Murrue?"

"October 12, C.E. 45,"

"And Yzak?"

"August 8, C.E. 54,"

"Ok, did anybody write that down by chance?" Cagalli smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of her neck,"

Everyone was about to yell some form of profanity out at her until Mu spoke up.

"Kira will go first, then Cagalli, then after them it will be Athrun and Lacus, then Yzak and Milly, after then Dearka and Murrue, and then the last to go is myself,"

"Wow, good job, Mu," Dearka applauded Mu on his memory so they wouldn't have to go through that again.

"Thanks, kid, now can we just get this over with?"

Kira picked up a fruit that looked like, well, he couldn't really decide, maybe a pear? No, it was more like a mango, but then again it could be a peach. Whatever, all that he knew was that this could be the death of him, he survives an entire war with no military training and then he gets killed by a fruit, wonderful.

He stared at it, then smelled it a little, then went back to staring.

"Come on, Yamato, we don't have all day," Yzak spat impatiently as he tapped his foot against the long he was perched on.

"Im going, I'm going! Just lay off would ya?" Kira snapped back as he brought the fruit a little closer to his mouth.

He finally took a bite seeing that Yzak was losing his patience. He chewed for a while, trying to get the taste, then after a lot of tasting and staring from his comrades, he swallowed.

"Well?" Now Cagalli was getting impatient.

"…"

Everyone stared some more, waiting for Kira to answer.

"…this one's a keeper," Kira spoke as he put the fruit in front of him.

"Why don't we make two piles, one for the good ones, one for the bad ones," Athrun suggested to the group as they all nodded in agreement.

Cagalli was about to go one and taste her fruit when she suddenly heard noises coming from the direction of the fire.

"Yzak, what are you up to?" Cagalli questioned him.

Yzak didn't answer but instead threw some wood in the fire and stuck some leaves underneath it. He then pulled out a lighter from his pocked and began igniting some of the leaves.

"What are you doing with a lighter in your pocket, Yzak?" Dearka inquired as one of his eyebrows rose.

"It's a standard military issued lighter, you know, the ones they gave us in case of an emergency and we get stranded on an island," Yzak looked over to a blushing Athrun and Cagalli as he said this.

"WHAT? There's nothing wrong with getting stranded on an island," Athrun defended with Cagalli backing him up.

Yzak just shrugged his shoulders and continued doing his work on the fire. He eventually got a small flame going and returned to his spot on the log.

"Alright, my turn," Cagalli said confidently as she picked up her fruit.

"Hey, of you look at it sideways, it kind of looks like a, a plum," Mu turned his head to see if he wasn't just hallucinating. Murrue then turned her head like him to see what he meant.

"You know, it kind of does," She agreed with him as she squinted her eyes.

"Hey, can I just get this over with?" Cagalli snorted as Mu and Murrue turned their heads back.

Cagalli then took a vicious bit out of her fruit, but as soon as her teeth dig into it, she was immediately spewing the fruit out in front of her.

"NO, DEFINETELY NOT!" She yelled as she tossed the fruit into the fire. It was calm for a few seconds, then the flame started sparking causing Yzak to jump and hide behind Murrue protectively. The flame then grew a little bigger, which was a good thing kind of.

Murrue smiled at Yzak sweetly. "Hey, Yzak?"

"Yeah?"

"Move,"

"Yes, ma'am,"

"Now who goes?" Lacus asked from beside Kira.

"I think it's me," Athrun answered regretfully.

"Ok, Athrun, go for it," Mu said as he tossed Athrun a fruit.

"I think I'm just gonna classify this one as unidentifiable," Athrun spoke as he swallowed the lump forming in his throat.

"Don't be such a pansy Zala," Cagalli said mockingly.

"I'm NOT a pansy," Athrun said as he took a huge bit into his fruit. After he finished chewing he smiled and put the fruit in the piled that Kira started to form.

"Another good one it seems," Athrun announced happily.

"Lacus, you're next," Kira said while handing Lacus a friendly looking fruit. It looked like a cross between a pear and an apple. (There are such things as a pear apple, I ate one when I was in California)

Lacus bravely took the fruit form Kira's hand and took a bite. Judging by the look on her face it was a good one. She then gently placed the fruit in the keepers pile.

"Yzak, your turn," Murrue smiled as she passed Yzak a fruit.

"If Lacus can do it like a man, then I guess I can," Those were Yzak's last words before biting into the fruit that sort of looked like an apple with grapes popping out of it.

He sat there almost like he was thinking about what to say about it. He eventually spoke up.

"Hey, this is pretty- Famous last words I suppose. Yzak spit the fruit out on the ground and continued to spit out the vile taste.

Murrue's eyes widened slightly as she watched him spit it out, now not feeling to confident about when her turn would come up.

Dearka handed a fruit to Milly while Yzak added to the fire, making it grow a little more. Milly's fruit kind of looked like a pineapple combined with a cantaloupe except without the outer peel. She looked it funny before talking a slow bite out of it. It didn't take her long to make her evaluation. She didn't make and faces or anything. She kept it straight, making everyone wonder if it was good or not. She then slowly leaned over and set it in the good pile.

"Dearka," Milly began. "You can eat your strapple now,"

Dearka's face lit up, "Yes!" He then quickly bit into it.

"So, how is it?" Milly asked.

"Good, just like I thought," He answered while tossing the fruit into the pile.

"Murrue,"

Murrue flinched at her name, she didn't want to, but things were going good with the other fruits for the most part, she had nothing to worry about.

Mu passed her the fruit that she was about to eat. It looked pretty normal to her. It kind of resembled an orange and a strawberry. She slowly brought it up to her mouth and then took a bite. It tasted good for a few seconds until-

"Ewe,"

Murrue turned around and spit the fruit out. Mu gathered her hair as she continued to spit the bits out into the bushes. She then turned around and threw the fruit full force into the fire knocking the logs over, surprising even herself, causing the fire to spark and then explode into a wild flame. Everyone just sat and stared at the fire until it died down a little about a minute later.

"Mu," Murrue whispered to her lover.

"Yes?"

"Your turn," She answered as she shoved a fruit into his hand.

"It looked like a freaking mutated banana," Dearka pointed out.

"Nah, it looks more like a peach," Kira argued.

"No way, peaches aren't pointy like that!" Dearka snapped back turning to face Kira.

"Yeah, just like bananas aren't round!" Kira defended getting his face even closer to Dearka's.

"ALRIGHT, THAT"S ENOUGH OF THAT!" Mu hollered shutting the two up.

"Let's just get this over with," Mu took a bite out of the fruit. Right after it touched his mouth he stuck it in the pile forming in the middle.

"Hey, we're done," Cagalli announced happily.

"What about the rest of the fruit though?" Lacus inquired.

"We'll take it as it goes, we don't need to make ourselves suffer anymore," Milly answered back trying to ignore the fruit sitting behind her.

"Second me on that one," Athrun agreed as did the rest of the group.

"Well now what?" Yzak asked out of nowhere.

"Looks like we didn't get as much fire wood as we would've hoped," Murrue pointed out at the small pile on the ground next to their now, thanks to the fruit, roaring fire.

"I guess we should go find some more, huh?" Cagalli asked as she stood up to go on another firewood hunt.

"I'll go get some, you stay put, Cagalli," Mu cut her off as he stood up and stretched.

"I'll go with," Murrue also stood.

The duo was about to walk away before Milly spoke.

"Maybe we should get dressed first," Everyone then blushed and scrambled around for their clothes.

The guys pulled on their pants as the girls gave up their shirts and slipped dresses back on. Once that was done Mu and Murrue were on their way again.

"What do you want us to do?" Dearka looked up at Mu as he turned around.

Separate those fruits and throw the nasty ones in the fire," He answered back simply as he and Murrue disappeared into the woods.

"Be careful, it's starting to get dark out!" Milly called out to them, but she didn't think they heard.

"I'm worried about them," Milly frowned as Dearka touched her hand gently with his unnoticed.

"They'll be fine," Dearka reassured.

"Yeah, I sure hope your right,"

"So, Mu, are we really out here for fire wood?" Murrue asked slyly as they slowed to a stop.

They were close enough to the campsite to run back if there was a problem, but far enough to be alone. The sun had set, so the only thing giving them light was the brightening moon.

"You must've been reading my mind again, love"

Just as Mu went to push his lips against hers, they heard a rustling in the bushes. Mu stopped and looked in the direction of the noise, Murrue hid behind him as they approached the bush.

"Dearka, if I find out that's you your done," Mu snarled as he went to kick the bush, that is until he heard a low angry growl.

Murrue whimpered and pulled him back away from the bush. They were about to turn and leave when whatever was in the bush jumped out. It was too dark to make out what exactly it was that was after them, but judging by the way it was snarling and coming at them was enough convincing that it wasn't happy.

"Murrue, run," Mu said quietly yet forcefully as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back through the woods.

They continued to run at a fast pace, the creature that had just emerged from the bush right on their tails. How far had they gone form camp? They continued to speed up, that is until Murrue lost her footing and tripped.

"MU!"

Mu immediately turned around and pulled her up as they continued to run. They could then make out the fire that was burning at camp. They approached it fast, the thing still on right behind them. They stormed through camp scaring the shit out of the teens who were now sorting through he fruits.

"RUN!" MU yelled as him and Murrue continued running into the other half of the woods.

"WHY!" Dearka yelled back.

"JUST DO IT!" The group then saw what they were running from and got up faster then hell.

They all eventually all caught up to the fleeing Mu and Murrue.

"MU, WHERE ARE WE GOING?" Dearka voiced out for the group.

Mu scanned the forest until his eyes landed on something.

"JUST KEEP GOING STRAIGHT!"

They all eventually came upon a cave that they made no hesitation in sprinting into. Once they were all in Murrue collapsed to the ground with Mu right behind her. She lay in his arms panting heavily, tawny eyes wide as a saucer.

"Murrue, are you alright?" Mu questioned.

Then the headache came. Murrue cried out as she started to squirm in pain, Mu held onto her as tightly as he could.

"_So those are the things that she's been sensing," _Mu thought to himself.

"What now?" Milly asked. As if to answer her question, the ground started to shake, knocking them all off their feet. The rocks at the opening to the cave started to fall around them, the small cave rattling around like it would crumble. The entrance started to grow smaller and smaller as the rocks blocked the mouth of the cave. When the rumbling stopped, the entire entrance was covered.

Dearka approached the entrance and stared up at it almost angrily, eyes slightly widened.

"Oh shit,"

* * *

:yes! Chapter 6 is finally here! Im so sorry guys! I've been so busy lately with school and what not.. my mom is also in the hospital so there's where half of the confusion came from right their…but now its here and I hope you enjoyed. the next chapter wont take nearly as long to post, so don't worry about that.. please excuse the spelling errors I know are there.. ill edit later.. I just wanted to get this thing posted.. as much as I hate the snow, if you live in pa... pray for snow cuz im not in the mood for school tom ;) I don't even have a voice right now.. damn cold.. so anyway.. I havn't decided what the creature that was after them is going to look like, so if you have an idea feel free to share xD until next time - - lith - - oh and also.. I have an estimation of how long this story will be.. probably 5 to 6 more chapters and a sequel.. so don't worry, its far from being over :3 see ya! ahh i almost forgot.. thelyrics i used in here.. meanig the italisized stuff i used when they were in the hot springs.. the song's name in "Scar" and it belongs to Ayumi Hamasaki..not me..ok, _now_ im done...see you all later :) 


	7. Ride on the Night

:Sorry about the wait everyone, with my mom in hospital on and off since a few weeks ago over Christmas and just 2 weeks ago, things have been insanely pushed back. So, that's why I havn't gotten around to it until now, but, here is chapter 7, have fun! It's a friggin long one ;)

* * *

"Oh, shit," Dearka muttered as he looked up at the blocked entrance to the cave. 

They were trapped in a cave, all of them, a cave that wasn't much bigger than an average sized living room.

"The air supply in here isn't going to last very long, we need to find a way out before we need to start worrying about breathing," Mu announced to everyone as they nodded quickly in response.

"Alright, this cave isn't very big at all; we can easily find a way out. Milly and Dearka, you two cover the perimeter if the cave for a gap or cracks in the walls, anything. The rest of us will start pulling out the rocks at the entrance, but we have to be careful so that we don't start a rockslide, or we'll all be dead," Mu gave them all directions so that they could get out as soon as possible.

"What happens once we get out?" Dearka spoke up, startling them all. "What I mean is, what about those things? They'll be out their for sure, we have no way of telling if their gone,"

"They are gone," Murrue spoke up from her position on the ground next to Mu, everyone turned to look at her.

"I can sense them, and as of right now, they're gone,"

"Murrue," Mu whispered so that only he could hear.

"When I sense them again, you'll all know," She finished as she stood up, a serious glint to her eyes, and almost angry touch.

Mu got up and stood beside her, but he didn't touch her, he was almost scared to. Everyone just stared at her, not moving or doing anything Mu had told them to do.

"Well, you herd the man, let's find a way out of here," Murrue barked out at them, her Captain's voice lacing around her words. If that didn't put anyone into motion, who know what will.

Milly and Dearka quickly jumped into movement as they began scanning the perimeter of the cave carefully while the rest made their way over to the now blocked off entrance.

"Alright, let's do this and get the hell outta here," Yzak snorted with a smirk and began pulling the rocks out.

Everyone followed suit and pulled at the rocks. Mu and Murrue were at the very end working at a quick pace, confident to get out.

"You know, Mu, a rockslide might be the only way to get us out of here," Murrue said as she stopped pulling at the rocks to train her attention on him. Mu then looked at her.

"You're absolutely right – HEY GUYS, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! Milly and Dearka, get over here!" Mu hollered once Murrue's ea fully made sense to him.

"OK, we have to dig until we find the rocks holding up this mess. Then we need to quick pull them, run like hell to the back of the cave, and pray that we don't get crushed. The only way we're getting outta here is if we cause a rockslide," Everyone looked at Mu like he wasn't speaking English," "I know, I know, it's crazy, but either we go down fighting or e suffocate, either way we're risking our lives here, understand? Besides, this wasn't my idea, it was all Murrue," He said the last part suer fast, but Murrue caught it and elbowed him in the gut.

Everyone then turned to stare at the offending rocks.

"This could take a while," Kira muttered,

"Yeah, but either we do it this way, or we all sit here and die," Mu explained again, confident that this would demolish any doubt that the young coordinator might have.

"I choose life," Yzak decided as he began pulling at the rocks once again.

Everyone followed Yzak's well set example and began to put their plan into action. Milly and Dearka returned about 20 minutes later, not so much as a crevice in the surface of the cave uncovered. They turned to help the others once briefed by Mu on their objective. The rock started to get bigger toward the bottom, which posed as a problem.

"Kira, these rocks are too big, I can't move it," Lacus called to Kira as she pulled with all her might, but the rock wouldn't budge for her.

Kira chuckled at her efforts. "Don't worry about it Lacus. Hey Mu, what do we do?" Kira hollered over to the ex-commander.

"We'll have to work together. Milly, Dearka, and Yzak, you 3 go over to the far end and do the same thing that we were doing before. Kira, Athrun, Cagalli and Lacus, you guys work in the middle. Me and Murrue will stay over here and work, got it?"

"Gee Mu, fancy you and Murrue are over there alone," Milly smirked as she noticed that they were the only two alone.

"Yeah, Mu, wonder how that happened," Murrue beamed once she caught on to Milly's joke. She loved to watch Mu struggle underneath their pressure when they got the chance to turn the tables on him.

"Huh, I have no idea what you're talking about, ladies," Mu ruined their fun as he saw they were undeniably trying to squash his ego.

"So are you guys all ready to go?" Mu asked once Milly and Murrue got a last laugh out before they got back to work.

He got a variety of different answers which all pointed to yes. Everyone turned to their respective posts and began to work.

"Damn, and I though we were done taking orders from you, La Flaga," Kira laughed at how ironic it all was. The war was over and they were all very capable people, but they were still under the Captain and the Commander's jurisdiction.

"Shut up kid," Kira saw Mu's head pop out from behind Murrue to tell him off. He couldn't tell if he was serious or if it was his usual demeanor coming back for a spin.

By now everyone was laughing at the two's childish behavior. "You two argue like brother's you know?" Cagalli pointed out. "But you're still not as good as me, got that old man?"

"Hey who are you calling old? Let me remind you that I'm about twice your size," Mu waved a finger in front of his face playfully.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya'. And let me remind you who's responsible for the signing of your paycheck back in the military," Cagalli laughed at his taken aback expression and now hushed mouth. He was looking somewhat wistful, as if trying to think of a comeback that would never come, that mad her laugh more.

They were all quiet for a while, amusement for the hour all dried up. Things were almost boring; the only music to their ears was of the rocks falling to the ground, some rolling a few feet before stopping in a corner or on a bump somewhere. They were all working at a healthy pace, a system worked out in each group. The next rock Mu and Murrue pulled was the last one that they needed to pull in their section, a single rock holding up the fort for the rest. It was then that Murrue wavered on her feet.

"Murrue?" Mu questioned as he let his hands rest on her waist.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," she answered as if it was nothing, and turned to see how the others were doing.

He wanted to reach out and grab her wrist, but reeled the idea back into his mind once her realized that he should just let her go, even if it went against the uneasy feeling in his stomach about it. He let his back rest against the wall as he watched the rest, figuring that they were fine on their own, they were almost done anyway, it'd be best for him to just stay out of the way.

"Ouch, that was my foot A-hole!" Dearka barked as he kicked the rock that had been dropped on to his foot out of the way.

"Sorry, didn't see ya' there bud," A laughing Kira replied, Dearka looked up and saw Lacus suppressing a laugh as well.

"Fine, go ahead and laugh at me, sure, cuz it's real funny when people hurt me. Bu if I dropped a rock on Kira's foot and I laughed you'd go all super chick on my ass," Dearka went on and on about it. Murrue gave him a questioning glance towards him before Milly spoke up.

"Nice to see you're handling this well, Dearka," Murrue laughed when Dearka gave her a look and Milly glared back at him.

"It's best you wipe that rebellious look off you're face before I wipe it off for you personally," Dearka then put a goofy grin up in it's place, waving at her cutely.

Milly sighed muttering something about needing to do something about his radical behavior. She looked over to Murrue who was looking kind of dazed.

"Murrue, you ok?" She asked as she touched a hand to Murrue's bare arm. Murrue didn't respond right away.

"Murrue!"

"Oh, sorry Milly, I'm fine," Milly gave her a look that said she didn't believe her.

"Don't worry, I think I'm just getting a little claustrophobic in here, which means we need to finish this quickly," Murrue ushered Milly over to the rocks. Milly still wasn't convinced, but she continued to work anyway.

"Ouch, CAGALLI!" Athrun's voice echoed off of the caves narrow walls, causing it to bounce around for a few seconds before dispersing into the air. He grabbed his foot and began hopping around on the other

"Ah, I'm sorry, Athrun, I didn't mean to!" Cagalli apologized while grabbing onto Athrun's arm to he could stand properly without all the hopping.

Mu chuckled at the teens, finding their antics quite amusing. But, he also had an eye on Murrue, thinking that something bad was going to happen, seeing her behavior hasn't been the same lately.

_You're being paranoid; she can take care of herself._

His mind tried to reassure him, but there was still a part of him that felt uneasy about it. He turned his attention back to the others to watch Athrun continue to hop around on one foot swearing to the rock that had crushed it. He was so caught up in watching that bunch that his attention on Murrue was cut off until he heard Milly's voice.

"Murrue, what's wrong, Murrue!"

Mu turned his head to see Murrue on her knees and Milly besides her trying to find out what was going on. He pushed off the wall he was leaning on a sprinted over to the girls.

"Milly, what's going on?" Mu questioned frantically and he put his hands on Murrue's shoulders to look her in the face.

"I don't know, she said something about it being really warm in here and then the next thing I know she's on the ground saying that she can't breath," Milly was starting to get frantic until Mu rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down, it's not your fault, the air's getting thin, we need to get out of here and fast," His full attention as then turned onto Murrue while Milly stood up and collected herself.

"Hey, guys, we need to move and fast, Murrue's not doing well," Milly announced and everyone stopped and spun around in their places.

"Why, what's wrong with her?" Kira spoke first, worried about his former Captain.

"She's hyperventilating," Mu answered as he picked Murrue up so he could set her up against a wall.

All the kids watched her as she struggled to breathe. Mu looked on, not knowing what to do, al of the first aid and CPR training he crammed into his for the military slipping away from his grasp. He then realized that _he _can't help her, but _she _can.

"Murrue, you're gonna have to do this on your own, there's nothing I can do for you to help. You have to control your breathing. Calm down and concentrate on this," Mu coaxed her through it, but she didn't hear much.

"I…can't,"

"You can!"

"Mu, does she have asthma, or an inhaler that didn't know about?" Kira came up behind him to have a closer look at Murrue.

"I- I don't know. I don't remember her saying anything about it," He answered as his mind raced. As he sat there thinking of what to do, Murrue is quickly running out of air.

"Alright, everyone except the kid back off and give us some space, get back to work so we can get out of here," He snapped, kicking himself into action, finally.

"Ok, Murrue I'm gonna guide you through your breathing, there is only so much can do to help though, ok?" Murrue nodded her head slightly.

"Ok, when I tell you to breathe in, you breathe in, when I say out, I want you to exhale for me. You're gonna be ok, we're gonna get you through this," Mu then directed his attention to Kira.

"Kid, can you help her sit up straight, I need her to keep her airway as open as possible,"

"Sure thing, Mu," Kira moved behind Murrue and kneeled so that she could lean her back against his chest.

"Ok, Murrue- in," Murrue took a sharp gulp of air, but none of it reached her lungs.

"Try again, slow it down though, you need to get your regular pace back," She tried to breathe slower, taking in a mouthful of air, this time, in went in.

"Good, now out…slowly," She let a hurried breathe out.

"It's ok, do it again," Another slow breathe in.

"Out," This time, she took her time to release it.

"Alright, do you think you can try it on your own?"

"Yes," She could speak again, which was a very good sign.

Mu smiled thankfully knowing that she was ok. "Alright, go ahead,"

She went over the 'ins' and 'outs' in her head as she began to breathe normally again. After a few more minutes she could stop directing her lungs to breathe as they did it on their own.

"Murrue?" Mu questioned, voice trembling if only slightly.

"Thank you Mu!" She exclaimed as she leaned forward to hug him tightly.

He returned her hug by wrapping his right arm around her back and his left arm rested on her head. Their moment of peace was quickly disturbed however.

"Mu," He heard a breathless cal form Dearka.

"What is it?"

"The airs getting low and we need more hands over here," It was then Mu realized that he couldn't breathe well either, it was either they got out now…or never.

"Kira, can you sty here with Murrue?" Mu asked Kira as he began to stand, reluctantly letting go of Murrue.

"Yeah, no problem, just see to it that we get out of here,"

"Right," Mu nodded his agreement and he was off, leaving Kira and Murrue behind.

Soon after Mu went to help, everything was finished and set up so that they could get out. Kira stood Murrue up and walked her over to Mu. After that he went back over to stand by Lacus.

"Kira, I'm scared," Lacus clasped Kira's dress shirt between her fingers and lo0oked up into his violet eyes.

"Don't worry Lacus, we'll all be outta here before you know it, I promise.

"Ok, guys, you all ready?" Mu questioned, his fists clenching and unclenching in his nervousness.

"As ready as we'll ever be, let's just get this done and over with," Athrun voiced all of their thoughts as everyone nodded in agreement.

"Ok, on the count of 3 we pull and hen run to the back of the cave for all we're worth, and pray to all that's holy that we don't get crushed," Mu instructed these vital directions so that _everyone_ understood crystal clear.

"Alright, let's do it," Yzaks spoke confidently, his facial expression, however, didn't reflect his attitude for once.

"1," Kira started. He then looked at Lacus.

"2" Athrun called out the seconds number, then he looked to Dearka, Milly and Cagalli.

Murrue looked at Mu and mouthed "Don't die," He mouthed back to her "As long as you don't," and then they went.

"3,"

Everyone grabbed a rock, and they pulled. Nothing happened at first, but then, just as quickly as they pulled the rocks, they started to shift, and then they started to budge. A few seconds later, the r0ocks gave way, giving the group a run for their money. All of the guys shoved the girls in front of them as they ran. They all ended up pinned against the wall in the back, as far away from the rocks as humanly possible. Dearka, Kira, and Athrun grabbed Milly, Lacus, and Cagalli and shoved them into the wall. Murrue stood in front of Mu, her back facing him. They both stared at the rocks, trying painfully hard not to notice how fat the rocks were coming at them. The noise was unbearable as it reached its maximum crescendo. Murrue covered her ears and Mu wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and crouched down. The entire cave then started to shake and everyone held tightly to each other, except poor Yzak, who was standing all alone. The noise continued to get louder and louder. Milly let out a terrified scream that mixed in with the rumbling sound of the rocks. It continued, louder, louder, louder, until suddenly, it stopped. They all turned slowly to see that the rocks had stopped a few inches before their almost guaranteed deaths. They all squinted through the clouds of dust fogging their view. Athrun let out a cough before seeing it first, like light at the end of a tunnel. They all made out the light from the moon, shining brightly through the cave entrance, piercing straight through the dust.

"Is it over?" Lacus mumbled into Kira's shoulder as they slowly backed away from the wall.

"Yeah, I think so, Lacus," He answered in a whisper as the dust finally settled and cleared away so they could see perfectly out of the cave.

The group as so overjoyed at what they saw, they couldn't even speak. They finally found a way out of the damn cave.

"Hey, hey, we did it!" Cagalli exclaimed, breaking the silence that had settled along with the dust. She shook Athrun's arm excitedly.

"Yeah, except one more thing, we get to go rock climbing now. Yay for rock climbing…not," Well, at least Yzak is back to his usual ignorant self.

"Well this'll be fun with no shoes on," Murrue stated flatly while eyeing the 20 feet of rocks they had to cross.

"And a concussion, not to mention you just hyperventilated and went all claustrophobic on us," Dearka apparently felt the need to tack on those last couple of things.

"Thank you, Dearka, your encouragement was greatly appreciated," Murrue glared in his direction while he just smiled sheepishly while waving slightly.

Murrue then smiled and waved back as well.

"You do know that it's a bad thing when she looks at you like that, right?" Mu asked, fully aware that that was the exact same look she gave him when he threw her in the pool in their backyard…and _accidentally_ pulled her top off in the process. He couldn't walk straight for about 3 days after that little stunt. Lesson well learned to put it simple.

"Wow, I couldn't have guessed," Dearka swallowed hard as he backed up slightly.

"Hey, Dearka?" He heard a familiar acid sweet voice call from behind him.

"Yeah, Milly?"

"Let's go," She grabbed him by the color and pulled him over o the rocks so that the two could begin climbing.

They could hear their voices echoing off the cave walls after they were well on their way out of there.

"Don't come crying to me when Murrue beats the shit out of you for being a sadistic asshole," Milly was humoring the group behind them, but scaring the hell out of poor Dearka.

"I guess we should go too," Athrun spoke in amusement. He received 3 nods from Kira, Cagalli, and Lacus, a blank stare form Mu, no response from Murrue, and a grunt from Yzak who began to advance forward to start climbing over the rocks.

"Let's get this over with, if I have to stay in here for one minute longer with you guys I'm going to need counseling," Cagalli sneered and began to walk confidently over to the rocks followed by Athrun. Kira smiled at Lacus and then walked over to grab her hand and pull her over to the rocks. He told her to keep going while he turned to talk to Mu quickly.

"Mu, you coming?"

"Yeah, we'll be there soon, we need to figure out how we're gonna do this first," Mu answered while scratching his head in utter confusion.

Kira shrugged, "Carry her,"

Mu then blinked. "Huh? …Duh, good idea kid," Mu whispered to Kira's retreating back as he clambered over the rocks to catch up to Lacus.

Mu looked over to Murrue who was stand there casually with her arms crossed lazily over her stomach. He to take a step, but a sharp pain bolting up his leg stopped him quickly in his tracks.

"Ah, shit,"

Murrue heard him curse out and turned to her right to face him.

"What is it…Mu?" She approached him, her eyes flashing with hinted worry, reaching a hand out to put it on his chest.

"That damn bear scratch I got earlier,"

"Oh no, I hope it's not infected," The worry in her eyes then grew to fill them until you could practically see it brimming her tawny orbs.

He pushed her chin up with a finger to silence her worry. "No, it's nothing like that, it's just stiff from all of this running away we've been doing lately," He gave her a reassuring smiled and peck on the lips. She smiled back, but it didn't reflect her thoughts.

"Now come on, let's get outta here,"

"But how? Neither of us can walk well," She gripped his arm at the though of not getting out of the cave.

"I'll carry you," He replied simply, like it was nothing at all.

"No, you won't. You can barely hold your own weight, there's no way you can carry me,"

"Why not, it's not like you're fat or anything," He snickered, half expecting her to hit him for that.

"Mu! That's not what I mean, well…maybe it - YOU'RE NOT CARRYING ME!"

He began laughing out loud at her embarrassment, making her cheeks go scarlet. "Relax, Murrue, I'm just kidding. And you're not fat. If anything, you're not fat enough,"

"Stop it, Mu. I am fat enough,"

"You are not, end of story," He finished that argument, before she started bashing herself to no end.

"You're still not carrying me," She stated firmly, trying to cool down her face so that the blush would go away.

"I'll survive, I'm a big boy, I can handle it," he smirked as he put his hands on her shoulders.

"And I'm a big girl, I can walk on my own as well. How hard could it be, are you saying that I can't handle it?" She looked into his blue eyes as she put her hands on his shoulders. "They're only rocks," She was being childish and stubborn; Mu loved it when she was like this of course, but sometimes it proved disastrous. As he watched walk over to he rocks and hop up on one of the rocks, he then decided that this was one of the more disastrous times.

"Murrue," He said in a warning tone, hoping that she would listen to him…wrong.

"See, I'm fine," She turned around on her rock to prove to him that she was still in one piece. Mu sighed uneasily.

"I have a bad feeling about this," he called out to her as he made his way over to the rocks, cautiously spotting her in case she fell.

"I can do it, nothing bads gonna HAPPEN!" Her next step resulted in it catching a sharp rock, putting a gash in it. She stumbled forward and away from Mu's waiting arms as she toppled down over herself landing on the rocks with a 'thump.'

"Murrue!" Mu's nerves proved to be dead on as he ran over to her and jumped over the rocks to get to her. He looked down on her form his position on top of the rocks she fell over just moments before.

"Ow," She mumbled from her sitting position on the rocks ass he looked innocently up at him.

He held out a hand to her.

"Nothing bads gonna happen, huh?" He smiled as he pulled her up. She stood on her left foot, the one without a cut, and leaned into him with his arms around her waist for support.

Her eyes got all wide when she looked up at him, like a little child that just got her wrists slapped.

Watch your step next time, silly,"

She smiled at him and rested head on his chest as he hugged her lightly. She then helped him boost her up on to his back for a piggy back ride out.

Back with the others, things were moving swiftly. There were no problems with them hopping across all of the rocks, well, maybe the girls struggled with the heels, but only a little.

"Hey, Speedy Gonzales, where's the fire?" Dearka called out to Yzak who was practically out of the cave.

"Hey, Dearka, open your mouth again and I'll break your face," Apparently Yzak was having another one of his_ happy_ moments.

Yzak hopped off the last rock and into the grass outside of the cave. The sun was completely gone and the moon was shining brightly as it bathed everything in a white light.

"Hey, you guys wanna hurry up?" Yzak asked annoyed looking back at the rest.

"You wanna kiss my ass?" Dearka retorted as he and Milly made it out as well.

"What did I tell you about talking again? Oh yeah, that's right, don't do it," Yzak snapped back at the blonde.

"Ah, we made it," Athrun's comment put Yzak and Dearka's little brawl on hold as he jumped off the last rock and turned to help Cagalli down.

"You're lucky Elsman, I was ready to kill you," Yzak sneered in Dearka's direction.

"Yeah, right, let's see it," Dearka glared into Yzak's eyes as they burnt with annoyance.

"Uhm, let's not," Milly butted in, breaking the two up.

"You guys can kill each other AFTER we survive this," She then quickly added on at the end to make sure that they would hold the peace she brought upon them.

"Ha," Dearka mocked Yzak with a snort. Yzak just turned the other way.

"I see we didn't miss anything," A familiar voice call deform behind them all.

"Kira, you guys get out ok?" Dearka asked, turning his attention to the brunette.

"Yeah, everything went fine; we just have to wait for Mu and Murrue,"

"Wait no longer," Mu called out bringing everyone attention to the entrance to the cave.

Mu was there, Murrue his back, both standing their casually like they didn't just crawl out of a cave.

"Well that was good timing," Cagalli spoke up, hand on her hip, smiling at the couple.

"Yeah, so, everyone ok?" He asked while Murrue slid down off of his back.

"I think so, now all that we have to do is head back to camp," Athrun spoke as everyone nodded in agreement.

It was almost as if they forgot that they were currently being hunted by those strange creatures. They would be reminded soon enough, however, for they weren't the only ones in the woods, and they weren't the only ones acting all shady in order to not be noticed. Things with them were far from quiet like the eerie darkness of the forest. They were all caught up in a conversation with someone, trying to keep their minds off of their situation. Milly and Lacus, Murrue and Kira, Dearka and Yzak, and Mu and Cagalli were all discussing random things. No one was really paying any attention, no one except for Yzak. He heard something before, footsteps in the brush. He made sure to keep one ear open to Dearka and one ear open to the woods, so that next time, he would hear it for sure.

He heard it again when Dearka said something discouraging about them all ending up dead from fruit poisoning in the end. It was coming from the bushes to his right.

"Hey," Yzak called out to everyone, halting them in their tracks.

"What is it?" Mu asked while approaching him.

"There's something in the bushes," Yzak and Mu moved to either side of the bushes lining the path.

"On the count of 3, we pull back the bushes," Mu instructed in a hush.

"1…2…- The pair looked at each other quickly before Mu said 3.

"3!" Both of them pulled back the bushes, Yzak could've pissed himself.

He let out a scream as he stumbled away from the bushes; Mu following his well set example as he jumped back to stand in front of Murrue.

What Yzak saw would scar him for life. Behind the bushes, it was none other then, his _best friend_, the bear. It popped out from behind the bushes and waddled on to the path. She looked at Yzak and snorted, and then, without confrontation. It continued on down the path like nothing ever happened.

"Jesus Christ, that that thing is stalking be I swear it on the holy bible!" Yzak exclaimed as e backed away even more. Everyone that was standing there began to laugh hysterically at him.

"Hey, it's no t funny!" Yzak cried out bemused.

Of course their moment was cut short when they heard more rustling.

"Man, we should get back to camp," Kira said to everyone and led the way to continue walking.

5 minutes later and they were all back at camp. Everything was the way they left it, except for the fire, whose embers were giving off the last of their light.

"Well, I guess you could say home sweet home," Milly spoke as she headed over to sit on a log, followed by Dearka.

Everyone was exhausted and just wanted to rest, so they all plopped themselves down on a log or on the ground, practically falling asleep, that is until they heard more rustling in the bushes.

"Now what?" Cagalli snapped angrily at the noise interrupting her sleep.

"Maybe it's the bear cub?" Dearka suggested reluctantly.

"Come on kids, you don't actually think that our luck runs_ that_ deep do you?" Mu answered him as he got up and walked over to the bushes.

Murrue followed him and stood behind him as he readied to pull the bushes apart. He moved his hand closer but then the rustling stopped and moved to another bush, and then another.

"Whatever's back there, it's moving," Milly mumbled as she grabbed Dearka's arm.

Mu then quickly pulled the bush back, but there was nothing there. They then heard footsteps behind them. They turned very slowly and came eye to eye with the thing that's been chasing them all this time.

"That's not human!" Athrun called out as he took in it's features.

"That's not even an animal! That's like half human half freaking lion!" Dearka yelled back as everyone took a slow step back.

It was true; it did look part human part lion. Piercing yellow cat eyes, fur, pointy ears, tail, the only things that separated it from being totally a lion was that it had no mane and wasn't completely covered by fur. Part of its face human skin with whiskers and a big nose and it was standing on 2 legs instead of 4. It didn't have a mane around its neck either.

"That's not possible," Cagalli whispered.

"Shh," Lacus hushed her out of fear.

"Maybe of we stay quiet it'll leave," Murrue whispered to them all.

"Not likely," Mu yelled as he turned to grab a tree branch from the woods and charged at the creature.

"MU, NO!" Murrue screamed after him.

Before Mu could even make contact with it, a sharp claw whipped him in the face knocking him down. Seeing this, Athrun, Kira, Yzak and Dearka all grabbed a branch and ran out after the creature. They were taken out just as easily as Mu was. They picked themselves up dizzily as they watched the rest play out form the side lines.

There was no way in hell Mu was done with it yet, he got back up and swung hard at the creature. He hit it square on the head knocking it back a few feet when he hit it. He thought that maybe it was gonna be at least a little dazed, but he was wrong. The creature grabbed Mu by the neck and picked him up off the ground with Mu squirming, trying to get free with his hands, kicking his legs in the process. The creature then pulled its other arm back and flashed its claws. Then it whipped its arm forward and caught Mu right underneath his heard, just barely missing the vital organ. Mu let out a pained gasp and a loud cry as he coughed up blood while dangling there.

"MU!" Murrue tried to run forward but was held down by Milly and Cagalli.

"LET ME GO, PLEASE LET ME GO, HE NEEDS HELP, **LET ME GO!**" Tears started to stream down her face and fly everywhere in her struggle.

The creature heard Murrue and looked over to her. It then quickly dropped Mu in a panic and jumped back into the darkness as fast as it could, leaving the group there. Milly and Cagalli let go of Murrue and watched as she ran forward over to Mu and wrapped him up in her arms.

"Oh, god, Mu, don't leave me again! Open your eyes, everything's gonna be ok, just please open your eyes!" Murrue sobbed hysterically as she tried frantically to wake Mu up.

Milly rushed over and dropped to her knees right next to Mu. She reached underneath him and found out that the creatures claws didn't pierce the other side, which means it's only a puncture wound. She checked his vitals and realized that he had a strong heartbeat, and that he was just unconscious. She smiled and let out a big sigh of relief. Murrue looked over to Milly, tears in her eyes.

"Is h-he…he-"

"No, Murrue he's gonna be ok. We just have to take care of his wounds, whatever that thing was, it didn't do as much damage as we though it did," Milly explained while Murrue sighed and let out a sob of relief.

"Thank you, Milly," Murrue hugged Milly tightly as she calmed herself down. It looked like everything was going to be alright, for now anyway.

* * *

Murrue was with Mu as he rested, he hadn't woken up yet, he was still out cold, but they did get the chance to treat his wounds. Lacus had some bandages for Kira in her bag that she had left back at their campsite while they ran into the cave. They were all relaxing by the fire, calming down form the long night. Murrue was next to the fire on the ground, Mu's head in her lap, his chest rising and falling evenly. Milly had said that he would be in quite a lot of pain for a little while until the wound started to scab over a bit. Everything was peaceful until Dearka emerged from the other half of their campsite. 

"Has anyone seen Milly? She went to the other side of camp to get some water for Mu but never came back," He stated worriedly.

"Se probably around here somewhere," Lacus said.

Dearka was about to nod in agreement when he came across foot prink and tiny splashes of blood here and there on the ground. Realization then hit him.

"MILLY!"

* * *

:Well, here it is, _finally_. Once again sorry this took so long, I feel really badly. I'll try to work faster on the next chapter. If anyone has any suggestion as all, please let me know and I will fit them in to my story somehow xD By the way, Zetzumei, a little while back you said about Yzak begin paired with Shiho? Yes, I know that, but this story takes place before Destiny even happens. I don' think I'm ready to take on a Destiny story; I have to many stories to worry about at the moment ;) Ok, guys, there will be some explaining in the next chapter as of to why Murrue didn't sense the creatures and why it ran off when it saw her, and not to mention Milly! Bet you all can't wait :p Until next time :3 Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, or you can just leave it in a review too. Just as long as you can get any questions to me somehow ;) 


	8. Follow Me

:swears: Sorry for the lack of updating. I have no excuses for that, so let's jump straight to the story.

* * *

"Dearka, you can't just run through the woods like an idiot in the middle of the night! We need to plan this out!" 

"We don't have time to plan this out!" Dearka yelled wildly while pacing back and forth.

Yzak was trying to make him change his mind about going after Milly. Running around with no sense of direction or where she was isn't the best solution, but right now, Dearka didn't care.

"He's right, Dearka, we need a lead, something to let us know where she might be," Murrue spoke from the ground next to him.

"Well then how do we do that?" Dearka answered back hotly.

"Those footprints you found before might lead into the woods that thing took Milly," Murrue made a noise in protest when Dearka made to run over to them. "But you can't go alone. We should all split up to go find her. If you go out, then what will you do once you find her? You saw what that damned thing did to Mu, right? You won't stand a chance!"

Dearka looked down to the ground. "Alright, we'll do it your way,"

Murrue sighed in relief. "Alright, we should go in groups of 2. Dearka, you go with Yzak. You two can follow the footprints. "Athrun and Cagalli, you two go in the direction of where that cave was, who knows if that thing lived in there at one point, it might've brought her there. Kira and Lacus, you two go search the opposite direction of Cagalli and Athrun," Murrue ordered, feeling like the Captain again.

"What about you, Murrue, you're not going out alone are you?" Kira questioned worriedly.

"No, I'll stay here with Mu. We can't just leave him alone," She gripped his hand tighter in hers.

It made sense to everyone else, but Kira saw something else. He knew that she was worried about Milly, almost as worried as Dearka. Milly was like a younger sister to her. Lacus seemed to sense the same thing about Murrue, or else she caught the way her eyes shimmered in the moon, seeing the worry and fear.

"I'll stay with him, Murrue-san. I won't be of much use out in the woods, and if you don't mind leaving his side for a while, I can watch over him while you look for Milly, I know you're very worried," Lacus offered as she approached Murrue.

"Lacus- I, no, I'll stay here," She wanted to find Milly badly, but she also didn't want to leave Mu.

"I know you don't want to leave Mu, but you'll be of much better use searching for Milly. There's nothing I can really do, besides, you're their Captain, and they need you far more than they need me," Everyone looked down on Murrue, faces reassuring and warm.

"Murrue, you can come with me. We'll get this done quick, and you can come back to Mu," Kira coaxed her gently, not wanting Lacus to be involved in their hunt through the woods. He doesn't want her to get hurt.

"O-Okay, I'll go. But, be careful Lacus," Murrue was worried about Lacus being all alone. What if that thing came?

"I'll be fine," She reassured.

Murrue was about to protest when a thought hit her. "I'm sure you'll be fine," Everyone blinked in confusion at her sudden change in attitude.

"I just remembered something. That thing is after me, so I'm sure it wants nothing to do with you," She explained.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, that things not getting anyone else, so no one has to worry," Dearka stated confidently.

"Ok, let's get out of here and find Milly, kick this things ass and get the fuck home," Yzak ordered and they all split into their groups of two.

Cagalli and Athrun headed off after waving a hesitant goodbye and earning a "Don't die!" from Dearka. Yzak and Dearka were then off following the footprints, figures disappearing into the thick brush.

"Alright, are you sure you'll be ok?" Murrue asked Lacus again. The songstress just nodded and smiled.

"I'll be fine,"

"Ok, just be careful, and please, if anything goes wrong, just scream or something," Murrue stated firmly to Lacus.

"I will, don't worry," Lacus assured her again. The brunette woman gave her a tight hug and whispered a thank you in her ear before stepping back behind Kira.

Kira stepped forward and took Lacus by the shoulders. "Be careful, and don't get killed. I don't know what I'd do without you, Lacus," Kira then hugged her, causing Lacus to blink at his boldness, but that confusion melted away when he pulled back and laced a kiss on her cheek.

"Make sure you both come back alive!" Lacus called after the two retreating forms.

Both Murrue and Kira turned around and smiled reassuringly, well, as reassuringly as they could give the situation.

Kira and Murrue were walking through brush of all sorts, thorns, sticks, twigs, rocks, all the things found on the ground in the forest under there feet. But Murrue was far too distracted to feel the pain. Her mind was on Milly and Mu especially. Kira noticed this, and realized also that her attention needed to be on the task at hand, so she didn't get herself hurt, or far worse.

"Murrue…" He didn't know what to say. What could he say?

"It's alright Kira, you don't have to worry. My minds just not with me right now,"

"That's what I'm worried about. If your heads up in the clouds then you're vulnerable to that thing if it attacks us,"

She sighed heavily. "I know, I'm sorry, I'm just…distracted, that's all,"

Kira smiled sadly at her. "Don't besorry, Murrue, everything will be ok, I know it will,"

Murrue smiled at him in return. "I know you must be right, whatever that thing is, we're ready for it," She reached up and ruffled his hair as they continued to walk.

* * *

Yzak and Dearka were following along the trail, closely watching the footprints through the dark. They were both silent except for the sound of their breathing, not saying a single word. Dearka was too intent on finding Milly and Yzak wasn't about to say something that would set him off or upset him even more. 

"Dammit, I feel like we're getting no where fast here," Dearka spat out angrily.

"I know, we just have to be patient, we'll find her Dearka, and when we do, that thing is as good as dead,"

"Thanks man, I needed to hear that,"

"Hey, no problem," Yzak smiled.

Things fell silent again, but it wasn't an angry silence anymore. It was confident.

"Hey…you hear that?" Yzak spoke up after hearing a rushing noise.

"Yeah, it kind of sounds like running water,"

"Maybe a creek?"

"Yeah," Dearka agreed. "Maybe we'll find a lead?"

"Maybe, let's go check it out," Yzak suggested.

They were then both running off next to the footprints towards the sound.

* * *

Cagalli and Athrun were kicking up dust on their path. They were making their way to the cave that they just came from, and they had no lead what so ever. 

"You'd think that maybe it would leave some kind of hint or clue, something to lure the rest of us in," Cagalli spoke, frustrated and angry.

"Maybe it likes to hunt its prey one by one, take us all out slowly?" Athrun suggested.

She sighed. "Maybe, but I sure as hell can't wait until we find that son of a bitch. It has no idea what it has coming,"

Athrun would've laughed at her confidence, if not for the reason her confidence came out. He couldn't wait to find that thing either. He was definitely ready to kick some ass, no matter how hard it was.

"Hey, there's the cave," Cagalli pointed through the dark, the moon light illuminating its structure.

"Let's check it out," Athrun offered.

"Yeah, let's open up a can of whoop ass on this mother fucker,"

This time he laughed out loud at her boldness. She was fired up and ready to fight if necessary, and so was he.

* * *

Lacus was sitting quietly next to Mu, not wanting to disturb him. She was kind of nervous about being all alone in the dark, but it couldn't be helped. 

'I wonder how long it will be until he wakes up,' She thought to herself, really wishing she had some company.

She reached over and took the wet cloth off of his forehead. She walked over to the log full of water her and Yzak went through so much trouble to get, and socked it. She waked back over and placed it back on his head. She looked over his bandages, and realized that his wounds were starting to bleed through again, but she didn't want to change them by herself, since it took two people to do so; one person to hold him in place when they turned him on his side, and one to bandage him. She could do it by herself, but it wouldn't be worth the discomfort on part.

With a sigh, she decided to pick up on of the fruits and give it a try. She but into it and her face immediately twisted into one of displeasure and spit it out in the bushes. This just wasn't anyone's day. In the midst of her fruit testing, she didn't hear a groan from next to her. Her attention was caught when Mu started to shift around. She crawled the short distance over to him just as he opened his eyes.

He looked around for a few seconds, and then, as if his brain just started working again, he winced in pain and shifted around more.

"Mu-san, try and hold still, it will only feel worse if you keep moving around like that," Lacus wanted to help, but there was no way that she could.

"L-Lacus…" He looked around. "Where's Murrue…where's anyone?"

"They all went off…to look for Milly," She explained solemnly.

"What…happened?"

"We don't know, she disappeared shortly after you were injured,"

"…damn,"

"You had a pretty close call, Mu. You scared us all, especially Murrue. We though that you…" She didn't want to finish, either that or she knew she shouldn't.

He shifted his eyes downwards sadly. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Maybe if he wasn't so blunt back there, none of this would have happened. He cursed himself for being so arrogant. Now Murrue and the others were out in the woods looking around for something that could kill them.

"They didn't all split up and go out there alone did they?" Mu asked quickly.

"No, they went in pairs. Yzak and Dearka, Cagalli and Athrun, and Kira and Murrue,"

He sighed in relief.

'Good, Murrue's with the kid, she should be fine,'

He sighed again and looked up at the stars.

'I hope we can kick the shit out of that thing and get the hell outta here soon. Murrue, come back to me in one piece,'

* * *

Murrue and Kira forced their way through thick brush and a bunch of stubborn bushes with branches that seemed to move for no one. They felt like they were on a cat walk, using the bushes instead of the ground to move forward. It was time consuming, crawling through the bushes like animals. 

"Kira, where are you, I can't see," It was far too thick to see in front of her and she was starting to think she lost Kira.

"I'm right here," She jumped as his voice sounded from right next to her.

"You scared me,"

"Sorry, you doing ok?"

"Yeah, but my feet kill," She commented, just then realizing the nicecutting job the bushes did on her feet.

"I think we're almost out, I though I saw a clearing through the bushes just before," He assured her.

She would've questioned him if not for his advanced eye sight, and told him that he was seeing things and dismissed it. But, there was no need to doubt him and she wasn't in the mood to second guess anyway.

"Alright," She shoved forward through the bushes.

Five minutes later and that clearing that Kira saw was being embraced by the two.

"I thought we'd never get out of there," Murrue said as she massaged her sore feet from her place on the ground.

"Yeah, if that thing would've come after us in there we would've been done for," Kira agreed while sitting down next to her.

"Can you walk?" He question worriedly.

"I'm not so sure, I can try," She responded uncertainly.

Kira gave her and arm of support as she lifted herself up. She found that she could walk, but she was slow on her feet, and that might not be such a good thing if they happen to run into that thing.

"Come on, I'll carry you,"

"K-Kira, are you sure, I can walk on my own, I just need to get used to the feel of it,"

"No, I don't want you getting left behind if we run into that thing," He coaxed her into agreeing with him and hoisted her onto his back.

Kira walked in silence with Murrue for a little, until he spoke up. "You know, maybe we should give it a name. "That thing" isn't really working for me anymore,"

"Yeah, you're right. What if we called it a…panther or a cat?"

"That might work, but that would also make it sound normal, and it's far from it,"

Murrue sighed, she didn't have any good ideas, and Kira's silence implied that he had none either. She decided to just leave the name thing up to Dearka; he's the one with the sparkling personality after all.

They moved along rather sluggishly, not seeing anything leading to Milly. After a while, Murrue had fallen asleep, head resting againstKira's back. He smiled slightly.

'Now I feel like I'm the older sibling instead of it being the other way around,'

It was true, Murrue's usually the one there for him, but now, the tables had turned, and she was relying on him for once. It was peaceful for a while, but, as we all know, nothing can stay peaceful with them for very long. After about 10 minutes of sleeping soundly, Murrue began to stir, her eyebrows knitted together in pain. She let out a groan of discomfort, stopping Kira in his tracks.

"Murrue, what's wrong?"

"It's close by, I can feel it," He set her down on the ground and supported her with his arm.

"How close, can you tell?"

"Not extremely close, but too close for comfort I'd say,"

She can sense it this time, so why couldn't she the last?

'That bothers me, if that thing can control when it wants her to feel it and when it doesn't, then we have a serious problem on our hands here,'

Kira looked all around him, hoping that Murrue and this thing were working in vice versa. Hopefully shecan feel it, but itcan't feel her. Were they that lucky? He assumed they were about to find out.

* * *

Dearka and Yzak had run into much of the same type of bushes as Kira and Murrue had. Of course, there was a lot more cursing and complaining, but mostly the same. At the end, they both managed to tumble out of the bushes, some more gracefully than others. Dearka made it out ok, surprisingly, but when Yzak was about to crawl out, the branch he was standing on broke and he ended up falling out instead of stepping. 

"Shit, of all the things to go wrong you'd think I could at least doone thingright," He rubbed at his head and then picked himself up off the ground. He wandered over to where Dearka came out a few feet away from him and spoke up.

"So, do you see the footprints?" When they went into the bushes, they had to assume that they were following the footprints. Now that they made it out, they realized that there sense of direction kind of sucks.

"Hey, wait a minute, I see them!" Dearka yelled out and ran over past Yzaks kill zone surrounded by broken branches and leaves.

They led straight into the water. Dearka and Yzak looked at each other before nodding and stepping into the rushing water. It didn't take long to cross, there was a bit of a complication with a wobbly rock and a slimy patch of algae, but they made it. Once on the other side they searched frantically for the footprints, but no matter where they looked, they couldn't see any footprints.

"Dearka…" Yzak started calmly, but finished with increasing anger. "I think that damnthing went up the creek, and that means…" He couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"DAMMIT!" Dearka kicked the water angrily, the water raising up and getting all over himself and Yzak. The son of a bitch had enough nerve to walk upstream or downstream, they didn't know which, which means its footprints were as good as gone.

"We can still catch it. If one of us goes upstream and one of us goes down, we might find out where it got out," Yzak suggested, but it was to no avail.

"No, we're not splitting up, I'm not letting anyone else get caught by this thing. We stick together," Dearka stated firmly, anger filling his eyes.

"So, we just take a gamble and pick a direction?" Yzak suggested.

"…Yeah…that's all that we can do,"

Yzak clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we're gonna find her,"

And with that, they were both heading downstream, hoping with all their might, that that thing took Millyto where the water ends, and that they weren't going inthe completely wrong direction.

* * *

o.O Well, we're making progress as to why Murrue can only sense this thing sometimes, and the hunt for Mill has begun, so, until next time, you'll be left wondering xD Any ideas for a name for "that thing?" Please, let me know, because I'm as good as stuck :P 


	9. Trepidation

**Alrighty, this update came up faster than I could have fathomed. I'm gonna try and get a few stories updated tonight, although my internet is acting kind of funny. I'll have it fixed soon that way I can upload this. Anyway, here's chapter 9. **

* * *

"Well…guess we're out of luck," Cagalli stated sadly from the back of the cave.

They went in and stormed the place; they would have torn the whole things apart if there was anything to tear apart. The viciousness in their search had no effect on whether or not Milly was there, unfortunately, and their search was a lost cause.

"Dammit, why they hell did that thing take Milly anyway? She didn't do anything wrong," Athrun punched the wall once in anger. Even though he and Milly never really interacted much ever since she found out that he had been the one who killed Tolle, he was still just as worried as the rest of the lot were.

"None of us did anything Athrun, going after people just must be in its nature. Besides, you heard what Murrue said, she suspects it's after her, because she can sense it," Cagalli explained while running a hand along the cool surface of the cave wall.

"That's what I don't understand," Athrun began again. "This just doesn't seem real at all, how can this actually be possible?"

"I don't know Athrun, but that doesn't matter anymore, what matters is that it's happening, and we have to stop it from continuing on and concentrate on getting out of here alive. Now come on, we should get back to camp, make sure Lacus is alright. It's creepy in here anyway, we were already stuck in here once, and I'd rather not do that again," Cagalli brushed past him and grabbed his hand to pull him along.

They hopped across the rocks just as they did only hours before, trying to get out as fast as they could.

"I don't get it though…why Murrue? She's a perfectly normal human being, a Natural! How could something like this happen?" Cagalli was now the one asking questions.

"But so is Mu," Athrun reminded, starting to make a point. "He's a Natural, but he's able to do that Newtype Flash, am I wrong?"

"No, no, you're absolutely right…but he could do that with Rau Le Cruze, and he was human…this thing…is far from being even remotely human,"

"That's true, but still, it's possible, I can't think of anything else at the moment,"

"But…then, wouldn't that mean that Murrue's a Newtype then?" Cagalli queried.

"Well, we won't be sure until we have more facts, and I really don't think that we'll get many of those. It doesn't matter anyway, once this is all over we won't have to worry about it anymore," Athrun chose that moment to look up and take in his surroundings, they were nearly there.

"I guess…but I can't shake that nagging feeling that something bad is gonna happen to her…" Cagalli trailed off, not really wanting to finish that thought.

"Don't worry, Cagalli, I'm sure she'll be fine. None of us are gonna let that thing get its filthy claws on her…and if it thinks otherwise, it has another thing coming," He reassured taking her by the waist and leading her in the direction of camp, they could already see the light to the campfire burning through the thick brush.

* * *

"Ouch, damn rock!" Yzak yelped as he slipped on yet another moss covered rock.

He'd lost count of how many times he fallen on his back side from slipping on lose rocks or slippery ones. He was soaked through to the bone.

"Man, there's goes this suit,"

Dearka on the other hand, hadn't said a word since they began walking in the water. They could've been walking along the shore line, if not for the pain in the ass bushes Kira and Murrue climbed through lining it, trapping them in the creek. If they were to be attacked then…

'It feels like it's been hours since we last saw her. Where are you, Milly?'

Yzak watched him silently from behind, finally calming down after his little episode. It was a sobering experience, seeing Dearka, the spitfire, bottling everything up the way he did. He wanted to say something to get him out of his reverie, but, his words wouldn't bring Milly back, so there was nothing he could say. He kicked angrily at the rocks in the creek. Of all the things that could've happened, they had to lose Milly, and right under their noses. That was the last thing they needed.

"Hey, Yzak," He heard Dearka speak, but not looking up from the rushing water.

"What's up?"

"You don't think that thing just killed Milly off and left her somewhere, do you?" His fists clenched as he said this, voice tight with worry.

"So that's what's been bothering you this whole time, huh? No, I doubt that, I think that it wants us to come to it, so it can get us all at one time. Going after her like this is the worst way to do it, but we don't have much of a choice now do we?"

"You're right; we're doing what it wants. But, the fact that we know that puts us at an advantage,"

"It would have been," Yzak corrected.

"What do you mean _would have_?" Dearka stopped and looked at him in question.

"What we should have done was went in a group, that way, we could have been ready for it when we found it,"

"You saw what that thing did to us the last time we were in a group though, right? We don't stand a chance, if we go in a group we'll all get shot down in one try," Dearka yelled.

"True, but now we know how strong that thing is. We could have made weapons, or a plan, something,"

It was then silent, and they continued to wade through the water again.

"Besides, we don't even know if we're going in the right direction. We should go back and re-group," Yzak suggested and Dearka whipped around angrily.

"You think I'm just gonna give up! If you actually believe that I'll just turn around and stop now, you're wrong!"

"Come on, Dearka, you're a solider, you fought a war, you know that you can't always win by doing things the way you want them to go. We'd be a lot better off if we _all_ fought. Every single last one of us,"

Dearka lowered his head. "I thought we were done fighting, Yzak, I thought hat it would all go away when the war ended,"

"Well, the world isn't a utopia, and it never ill be, so don't expect it to work that way," Yzak let his head drop at the thought.

It was silent.

"…Alright, let's head back,"

Yzaks head shot up. "Wh-what?"

"Do you wanna go back and re-group or what?" Dearka asked firmly, a smile plastered onto his face.

Yzak smiled back. "You bet,"

They both clapped hands together and shook on it, and were then off in the opposite direction of where they were heading.

* * *

Back at camp, Mu managed to get himself propped up against a tree stump. He was sitting watching the fire, thoughts plaguing his mind. Where was Murrue? Was she alright? When would she be back? Lacus had boiled some water for him and let it cool off, and put it in a small hollowed out piece of wood they'd found in the woods. He took a sip, and left if next to him, seemingly forgotten.

"Mu, I'm sure she's fine, Kira wouldn't let anything happen to her," Lacus tried.

He acknowledged her slightly by smiling a little and nodding his head, but nothing more than that. His gaze soon returned to the blazing fire, entranced by the brightness. Lacus sighed, giving up, there was nothing she could do to sooth his spinning mind. It was hen she heard rustling in the bushes, and she stood, thinking it was that thing. She grabbed a tree branch they'd been using to poke at the fire and readied it. Mu saw her and piped up.

"Hey, what do you hear?"

"Something's in the bushes over there," She whispered back, not wanting to spook whatever it was.

Mu then wished that he could do something to protect them both if the worst came to worst. He backed into the tree a little more, his back ramrod straight.

The rustling continued on, getting louder and louder with each slow passing second. The tension in the air was suffocating, the two figures by the fire filled with fear. If this was the end, they wished that they could've at least said good bye to the ones they loved.

Lacus and Mu deflated once the rustling stopped and two figures stepped out. It was Athrun and Cagalli, not that thing.

"Jesus Christ, here I was, letting my life flash before me expecting Leo the lion to pop out, and it's you too," Mu yelled, feeling like an idiot expecting his life to end like that.

"Heh, sorry, HEY, you're awake!" Athrun realized, happy to see his friend back to the world of the living.

"You gave us a real scare their old man. I thought you were cat food for sure back there," Cagalli spoke as she walked over and sat next to him on a log.

"Hey, you don't think I'd die that easily do you? You just wait till the next time we see that thing, we'll disown the son of a bitch, I'll make sure of that,"

"Careful, Mu, I'd hate to see you get too cocky there," Cagalli laughed.

"Hey, you're one to talk!" Athrun retorted for Mu.

"Hey!"

They all laughed at her annoyed face. Lacus stood by, chuckling at their behavior. She was happy to see everyone coping with the situation better now. Her frown twitched a little when she looked out into the woods.

'_Be careful, Kira.' _

* * *

Kira watched Murrue closely. About 20 minutes before, she started to feel that thing, and she had a head ache from it. Now, she really wasn't feeling well. It was almost like the closer the thing gets, the sicker she feels. She sat hunched over, shaking; she told him she felt nauseous, which probably mean that the thing was close.

'_At first I thought she might be able to do a Newtype flash, but now, I'm not so sure. Either she has a pretty intense ability to flash over, or this is something completely different,'_

Kira looked around, seeing if the thing was near by, but as far as he could see it wasn't around. He could feel his body starting to tense up on its own out of fear. Could they make it out of this alive? He was pulled away from his thoughts when he heard Murrue's soft voice from right next to him.

"Kira, I think I'm gonna be sick,"

He promptly grabbed Murrue and pulled her over to some bushes and held her hair back as she threw up. This was where drew the line. That thing had to be right on top of them and he didn't want to be here when it found them. But they had to find Milly, and following that thing home might be the only way. When he noticed Murrue wiping her mouth he let her hair go. He rubbed her back a bit until she stood up to her full height.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, but…I don't understand. I usually just get a splitting head ache,"

"Yeah, but the thing was never this close before, save for that other time, but we don't know what happened their," He then thought of something. "Maybe you're pregnant,"

She punched him playfully on the arm, causing him to laugh. "That's not possible, me and Mu havn't done anything yet," Before he got the chance to think of a comeback, they heard branches cracking from above them.

Murrue grabbed Kira's arm and they both slowly tilted their heads up to the tree above them. Low and behold, there was the culprit of the cracking noise…their 'panther' in question.

"Murrue…run!" Kira exclaimed in a whisper and grabbed Murrue by the wrist and ran in the opposite direction of the thing.

They could hear it jumping from tree to tree, following them. They would need a miracle now. They picked up a lot of speed, running faster than they could've ever imagined. They jumped over logs and fallen trees, not even slowing down for air. Just as they were about to out run the thing, Murrue's foot caught on to a branch and she tripped. Kira went to pull her back up, and in that little amount of time, it caught up with them. It landed right in front of the downed brunette and the violet haired boy beside her. When Murrue looked up, she let out a horrendous scream.

* * *

Mu's ears picked up on the high pitched noise back at camp. He immediately knew what is was…a scream. By then everyone else realized. Even in the depths of the woods Yzak and Dearka heard and stopped to look in the direction the scream came from.

"Murrue," Mu whispered, feeling his heart sink.


	10. Fear and Consolation

**There's one thing I have to say. Holy shit, I can't believe it's almost been a year since I've updated this thing. Well, I'm about to make up for it. I hope I didn't lose a lot of you, and if I did, I'm sorry about that. I don't really know what happened. But, anyway, here's chapter 10. I must've received a reward for the worlds longest cliffhanger, because, well, you're all probably wondering what happened to Murrue. Time for you to find out ;) I'll give you guys a little recap real quick. **

_Murrue grabbed Kira's arm and they both slowly tilted their heads up to the tree above them. Low and behold, there was the culprit of the cracking noise…their 'panther' in question._

"_Murrue…run!" Kira exclaimed in a whisper and grabbed Murrue by the wrist and ran in the opposite direction of the thing._

_They could hear it jumping from tree to tree, following them. They would need a miracle now. They picked up a lot of speed, running faster than they could've ever imagined. They jumped over logs and fallen trees, not even slowing down for air. Just as they were about to out run the thing, Murrue's foot caught on to a branch and she tripped. Kira went to pull her back up, and in that little amount of time, it caught up with them. It landed right in front of the downed brunette and the violet eyed boy beside her. When Murrue looked up, she let out a horrendous scream._

_

* * *

Mu's ears picked up on the high pitched noise back at camp. He immediately knew what is was…a scream. By then everyone else realized. Even in the depths of the woods Yzak and Dearka heard and stopped to look in the direction the scream came from._

"_Murrue," Mu whispered, feeling his heart sink._

* * *

Dearka and Yzak were the first to react. Their first instinct was to run off into the direction the loud scream came from. Neither of the two was sure of it was Milly or Murrue, maybe one of the others? Regardless, they ran as fast as their long legs would take them. Whoever it was, they probably needed help, and fast. Water from the creek splashed all over their faces and clothes as they raced down with the current.

'Hang in there, whoever's in trouble just hang in there. We're almost there,' Dearka thought to himself.

'I swear if that thing put a scratch on anyone, I'll rip its fucking throat out,' Yzak cursed and spat as he ran. His throat was dry and his heart was about to throb out of is chest. But, he paid no mind to that, he had a one track mind right now, and that was saving whoever was in trouble, and killing that goddamn pathetic creature.

* * *

Mu wanted to run as fast as he could to that creature, and slit its throat for all it's worth. But, as hard as he tried, he couldn't manage to stand, let alone run. It pissed him off, more than anything, to be helpless in sticky situations, especially when Murrue's the one in trouble. He knew she was in good hands with the kid, but after what that thing did to him, he had no idea what it was capable of, but then again, you never knew what Kira had up his sleeve either.

"Athrun, Murrue and Kira, they can't take that thing on their own, we have to do something!" Cagalli was near hysteria, tears of fear and anger forming in her eyes, burning paths down her face.

Athrun growled low in his throat. He looked around frantically for some kind of a weapon, but the only thing he saw was sticks. He thought of the guns her knew for sure everyone kept in their cars, but the thought just made him even angrier. Their cars were way out of their reach now, so he was left with nothing. Unless…

"Cagalli, remember the knife I always keep with me, it was the one I almost killed Murrue with on Heliopolis. Is it still with you?"

Cagalli reached behind her, pulling down her dress, revealing a knife holster, fastened around her body, and low and behold, Athrun's knife was still secured inside, just itching to be used. He smiled and grabbed her face, kissing her. He pulled his knife out and turned around to face Mu and Lacus. Mu and Lacus looked bewildered, eyes wide, smirk on Mu's face.

"Do you always arm your girlfriend before you leave your house, or was this just dumb ass luck?" Mu commented, bringing a smile to Athrun's face once again.

"I never leave home without it. Somehow, this baby always comes in handy,"

Mu then suddenly remembered something. He smiled to himself at how similar everyone was to each other.

"Lacus, could you reach behind my back and get the gun that's back there?" Lacus looked stunned. Cagalli and Athrun could of died.

"Mu, did you really forget you had a gun. You went after that thing with a tree branch, but the whole time you had a gun?" Athrun asked in utter amazement at Mu's denseness sometimes.

"Well, even if he did have a gun then, it's not there anymore," lacus informed nervously, realizing the gravity of their situation, like everything just kicked in now.

"The hot-springs," Mu suddenly remembered. "Shit, I left it there. If for some reason you end up at the springs you two, look for it. It's an M-6, fully loaded, packs quite a punch,"

"We will, thanks," Athrun nodded and looked to Cagalli. "Stay close, and if that thing comes anywhere near you, kick its ass like you kick mine," He smirked.

She laughed and nodded her agreement. "Will do,"

"Oh, and, Athrun?" Mu spoke up just as they were both about to run off into the dark forest.

"Yeah, Mu?"

"If that thing put so much as even a little scratch on Murrue's body, give it my best regards," Mu gave him the thumbs up and an encouraging smile that both he and Cagalli returned, and then they disappeared into the woods, with every hope to come back again.

* * *

Their hearts were racing, ready to plunge out of their chests onto the forest floor in front of them. The adrenaline they felt was almost too much to bear. They were lightheaded, dizzy, vision blurred by tears of fear. Their blood was rushing, the sounds of it pumping and pulsing caught in their ears, like a broken record. They felt like they couldn't move, but if the could, would it make a difference?

Murrue reached up and grabbed Kira's pant leg, gripping it with all her might.

"Kira," She hissed through clenched teeth.

He reached down to firmly grab her arm. The creature before them let out a venomous growl. If they wanted to get away, it was now or never, and they preferred it to be now. Kira lifted Murrue up, pushed her behind him, and told her to get on his back. Instead of insisting she could run herself, she complied like the soldier she was taking orders. He could feel the edges of his senses tingling. If he was going to go into SEED mode, he hoped it was now. He began running the direction in which they came in. He swerved between trees, ran under fallen trees that got stuck on each other, jumped over mud, ran through springs and creeks, anything to get that thing off his trail, but no matter what, it was always right behind them. Even as a coordinator, he was not match for that panther's speed.

'_It just had to be a cheetah didn't it?'_ Kira asked himself rhetorically. Kira was beginning to become more annoyed than frightened by whatever that thing was. It's persistence really pissed him off. He could feel that tingling become an itching feeling, tempting him, taunting him, wanting him to kill. Usually he'd try to push it down and bottle it up, but right now, he wanted it to drag its way up, to boil over and explode. He was just about to stop and tell Murrue to continue running on her own, when he saw two figures rushing towards him at full speed. His heart stopped momentarily until he heard a familiar and welcomed voice.

"Kira!" It was Athrun. God was he happy to see that man. "Take Murrue back to camp! We'll take care of this!"

At first Kira wanted to protest, but bit his lip instead and continued to run. Murrue's safety was the first thing he needs to think about. He knew she could handle it herself, but he knew her senses were blurred by the presence of that creature. He ran right through the middle of Athrun and Cagalli as they stormed past each other. Kira could dimly see the fire they started through the brush and trees. He ran faster and faster, the itching now a burning sensation all throughout his insides. It felt like flames were licking the inside of his throat, setting his mind aflame. He bushed through the last of the bushes and stumbled into camp. Mu and Lacus looked up, startled. Kira gently put Murrue down and turned to leave again, to go back into the wood where Cagalli and Athrun would surely need him. Just before he could begin sprinting, Someone's arm grabbed him. He whipped around to see the culprit, it was Murrue. She opened her mouth to say something, but halted when she saw his violet eyes. They were, dull, lifeless, and angry. He'd reached SEED mode. She slowly released his arm and nodded slightly, and then she set him free. Within a matter of seconds, he was off out of sight again, back into the woods. The three of them just hoped he's come back in once piece.

* * *

Athrun jumped out of the way as the panther swung one clawed paw at him. He rolled in some brush and then re-gripped his dagger. He jumped out and did his best to make contact with some part of its body, but failed miserably. Cagalli stood, looking frantically for something to use as a weapon. Sticks, leaves, rocks, she did a double take on a long sharp, pointy rock. She dove for it and rolled back up to her feet. While Athrun was occupying their friend in the front, she readied herself to run the rock resembling a small knife right through it. She lurked quietly behind a tree, her heels sinking into the ground beneath her. When she felt the moment was right, she bolted from behind the tree, stepping quietly as she ran, and nailed the rock strategically into a few muscles in its back. The creature let out a loud, ravenous growl as it writhed painfully.

It swung an arm backwards, catching Cagalli in the head. She was knocked about five feet to her right and landing on the ground, motionless.

"Cagalli!" Athrun yelled as he saw her get knocked to the ground.

The creature reared its head to the front again, burning a path with its golden cat eyes right into Athrun's emerald ones. It was beyond angry now, and it was going to take it out on Athrun. It swiftly pulled an arm back and, before Athrun could even think to see what it was doing, grabbed his neck much in the way it grabbed Mu the night before, and lifted him from the ground. Athrun flexed his neck muscles to prevent himself from being choked to death. He pulled back his knife and prepared to plunge it into the panther's chest, but with its other free arm, the creature thought faster and knocked the knife out of his hand and off out of his reach. He was really in for it now, and he couldn't even sink to the level of needing help, because he had no voice to call for it with.

The panther rose a clawed hand up and stuck one of the sharp shiny bones protruding from its fingertips to Athrun's neck and pushed with some force. Athrun inhaled sharply and then choked as he felt his skin being punctured. He felt the heat from his own blood run down his neck and onto his white blouse. This was not good; he'd need a miracle to stay alive now. The panther traced his deadly path across Athrun's neck. Not deep enough to do much damage, but deep enough to bleed. It brought its claw back, and this time, stuck it in further. Athrun felt blood in the back of his throat and instinctively coughed it up. The merciless creature then began to slide its nail across the line it traced earlier, this time, penetrating deep enough to kill. Athrun knew this was it, and was sorry he couldn't save Cagalli and the others. He felt black closing in around him, his vision shaking before him. He was numb, the pain feeling a long time ago for him. Just as he was about to close his eyes, he caught sight of a pendant strung around the creatures neck, he wondered what it was as his world faded to black.

'I guess I'll never know,' He thought to himself as his eyes finally closed.

Before he could fall completely out of consciousness, he heard something in the brush. He hoped it was someone to help him out, be he couldn't be sure if he was just imagining it. If what was about to happen was real, then maybe there were such things as miracles in this distraught world. A figure that he could quite make out jumped onto the creatures back, knife to its own throat. In a whirlwind of sound and a hurricane of movement, the creature dropped him onto his back, knocking the wind right out of him. The creature swung the figure about in its back. The figured managed to cut what seemed to be its throat, but not enough to stop it. Instead, something golden fell from its neck instead…the pendant. Athrun let his head fall to the right, and noticed something shiny about six feet away. He then realized it was his knife.

He flipped over into his stomach and began to crawl towards it. He coughed up more blood and choked on the very air he breathed, but managed to grab hold of the black grip to his knife. He then pushed himself up with all of his strength, maybe even some of the strength he didn't have and stumbled towards the creature, His vision cleared for but only a moment, but enough for him to realize Kira had come to his aid. He was now currently in the ground being strangled by the creature. Athrun moved quickly, he snuck up begin the creature and made his move. He aimed straight for the creatures back, hoping his aim was precise. If so, he'd pierce its heart. He rammed the dagger right through to the front, blood splattering all over Kira. He ripped it upwards to make sure he had it, and then pulled it out. The creature howled in pain and jumped away from the two men. Athrun thought he'd killed it for sure, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The creature panted and cried, but dared not move any closer to the two of them. Instead, it backed away slowly into the dark safety of the woods, knowing full well they wouldn't follow it. They merely stood and watched until it was completely gone before they turned to each other. Athrun then took this moment to succumb to his injuries.

"Athrun!" Kira cried as his best friend fell forward into his arms. Kira then took notice of his neck, his SEED mode fading away to black until the next time he needed it. He rolled Athrun over and checked him out for any other serious injuries. He soon realized that the creature only managed to dangerously slice about and inch and a half across his neck, so with a little care from Lacus and Murrue, he's be alright. He then looked over to where Cagalli lay unconscious, and saw that she was starting to come to.

"Cagalli," He called over to her. She looked up to him with golden eyes. She then saw Athrun and was up in a flash.

"Oh my god, what happened to him? Did that son of a bitch cat actually get that close to him?"

"It appears so, but, it looks like the cute isn't to deep or too far along to be life threatening, still, we need to get him back to camp right away," Kira confirmed as she nodded. Kira picked Athrun up and Cagalli helped him onto his back. Just as they were about to get going, something gold caught Cagalli's eye.

"Hold on, Kira, I think I saw something," She walked over and bent down to see what she found.

She picked up the same gold locket that fell off the panther's neck. It was shaped like a sun and had writing all over it. It looked sort of Egyptian through her use of knowledge. She looked to Kira in confusion.

"Keep it, I think I saw that same pendant around that cats neck," She nodded her agreement and began walking towards the direction of camp with Kira. She had no idea what she just found, but was sure it would help them kill this creature that was so persistently stalking them.

**Well, there it is. I hope everyone enjoyed. That pendant plays a very important part in the rest of the story, and the reason I decided the writing to look Egyptian is because I'm very interested in Egyptian architecture, and I love to collaborate it into the stories I write. So, I'll see everyone next chapter, which will be up shortly. I'm working on my stories one by one individually until they all get finished, so, I'm not stopping until this one is done XD**


	11. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Yzak

**Another chapter! Sorry it took a little while. Right now I'm in the process of going through and editing the rest of this story and also revising a bit of it. This is something I should've done a long time ago. When I say revising, don't worry it's nothing drastic. Back when I started this story my writing skills weren't as sharp as they've become, and I'd a dreadful speller. So, I'm just fixing things up to my approval. Now, on to the story; it's getting suspenseful XD**

When Kira returned with Athrun on his back and Cagalli trailing behind slowly, everyone at the campsite stood with wide eyes, speechless, all with a million questions running rampant inside their heads. But, out of the million questions, they all managed to ask the same one.

"What happened?"

"Athrun tried to take on cat boy all by himself. I tried to help out, but…I got knocked out almost as soon as we started fighting," Cagalli answered, leaning back against a tree, sliding down into a sitting position.

"I came just as Athrun was about to get his head lopped off," Kira added while gently setting Athrun down onto the ground near the slowly dying fire.

Murrue and Lacus instantly got up to help take care of the Aegis pilot.

Kira took off what was left of his suit jacket and handed it to Lacus. She rolled it up into a ball and lifted Athrun's head up slightly so she could slide it underneath it. She brought her face down to his neck to examine the deep gash. Everyone's attention was turned to her, their thoughts and questions on hold. Lacus brought her head back up, half grim, half relieved expression sketched across her face.

"Well?" Yzak asked worriedly. Leo was gonna pay for this. No one beats up Athrun Zala except for him.

"He was very fortunate. The cut's not deep enough to do any permanent damage," There was a collective sigh of relief. "But," The sigh of relief quickly morphed into sharp intakes of air. "It's a deep cut…he probably needs stitches,"

They all knew what that meant. They had no phones to call for help, no way to reach a hospital, and more importantly, no stitches.

"I had a needle and skin suture in my first aid kit, but…" Lacus looked down at Athrun, genuinely worried for her ex-fiancé.

"So, what do we do? We don't even have bandages to dress the wound," Cagalli spoke nervously, her normally strong and confident voice shaking with worry.

"Wait," Murrue suddenly spoke, light in her voice. Everyone turned their attention to her.

"There's a certain kind of tree sap that you can treat cuts with. It's perfect for wounds like that. I don't know the name of the tree it comes from but I know it looks like. Also, you can use spider webs to stop bleeding,"

Everyone's features seemed to brighten at Murrue's words.

"I'll need a knife…and a body guard," She added on distastefully.

"Athrun has a knife in one of his pockets," Cagalli announced from her position against the tree she collapsed against earlier.

Murrue leaned over and searched though his pockets, pulling out the knife in question and a pack of gum.

"Gum?!" Dearka exclaimed happily.

"Unbelievable," Cagalli hit the back of her head off of the tree supporting her.

"Guess he really appreciates fresh breath," Mu laughed from the other side of the fire, finding the sheer absurdity quite amusing.

"That's what you think," Cagalli muttered, drawing a flourish of laughter from the group.

Murrue laughed to herself and stuffed the gum back into his pocket. She stood up and looked around, tawny eyes falling on a platinum haired boy.

"Yzak?"

"Yes, Murrue?"

"Any objections to escorting me through the jungle?"

Yzak looked from her smiling face, down to the knife in her hand, averted his gaze back to her face, smiled sheepishly and shook his head vigorously.

"No, ma'am, not at all," His voice was almost a high pitched squeak.

"Now wait a minute," Mu suddenly spoke just as they began to leave.

"What's wrong, Mu?" Murrue stopped and turned around to face him.

"Athrun almost got beheaded not ten minutes ago and you wanna go out there now? Please, isn't there a way we can make sure it's safe first? I know Athrun needs help now, but, two more downed people won't help us in the least,"

"Oh, don't worry, Mu. I don't think our friends coming back for a while," Kira said with a sly smirk crawling up his jaw line. It wasn't something you saw every day.

"Oh yeah, and what makes you say that?" Mu asked, one eyebrow skeptically rising.

"Let's just say, I took care of him," Kira answered, trying hard not to laugh out loud. Cagalli wasn't as controlling as she bursted out into a short fit of laughter. Kira had most definitely taken care of him.

"Let's just hope you're right," Mu spoke with worry under toning every word.

Mu sobered everyone's somehow cheery moods with those five simple words. The thought of losing anyone to that monster was unbearable. Behind their worried eyes and torn smiles, they knew that the last thing Yzak would do would be to let either of them die; and if their death's were inevitable, they would as least have the dignity to not go down without a fight.

Murrue and Yzak ducked underneath branches and vines as they entered the thick jungle. Despite what Kira had said, they were still careful in their steps, senses heightened against the eerie silence. Would one knife really be enough protection against that crazy lion? That question was probably on top of both of their minds.

"Are you sure you know what this tree looks like?" Yzak asked uneasily.

Murrue narrowed her eyes and smiled cockily. "What's the matter, Yzak, scared?"

Yzak scoffed and turned his head, coming dangerously close to blushing. "Never,"

They continued to walk in silence after that. After about ten more minutes of walking, a certain tree caught Murrue's attention. They walked quickly over to it, happy to see that there was plenty of sap oozing from in between the cracks in the bark.

"You know it's quite a coincidence that we found this tree," Murrue spoke as she scraped the sap off the tree with Athrun's knife onto a rather large leaf,"

Yzak squinted an eye at her, frowning ever so slightly. "And why's that?"

"Usually these tree only grow in Hawaii,"

Yzak could've died; he really could've, if it weren't for the sound of twigs cracking in the distance. He looked to Murrue, who hadn't seemed to hear it. It must've just been picked up by his sensitive ears. But, he still didn't like it. He heard a grunt from the woman collecting tree sap and looked again to her. She was wincing, causing him to bend over and look her in the eyes.

"Can you sense it?"

"Yeah, it's…close," He helped her stand, but they both instantly froze when they saw their furry friend thrashing about in the woods. It looked like it was in pain.

Yzak pulled Murrue behind the tree they were standing near and they peeked around the side. Said feline was roaring in pain, scratching at itself, trying to alleviate the pain. It was like it was in shock by the fact that it was injured. It was then they saw the wounds that Kira, Athrun, and Cagalli had inflicted on it.

"Kira wasn't kidding," Yzak whispered.

"Yeah, I guess not,"

The creature collapsed on the ground breathing heavily. It looked dead, but they knew better. Yzak grabbed Murrue's arm and slowly started to lead her away. They tiptoed around all of the twigs and brush lying around so that they wouldn't be noticed. They were pretty sure that Leo wasn't about to move anyway, but, you never know really. They stayed quiet until they knew they were out of earshot. Yzak wasn't paying attention to where he was walking, so, being the idiot he was, he walked right through a huge sticky spider web.

"Ahh! Spider web! Get it off get it off get it off!"

Murrue couldn't help herself, she just had to laugh. Yzak, the poised cool and always collected Duel pilot was dancing around because a spider web was stuck on his head.

"Murrue! Get it off!" She just continued to laugh.

It was then that Yzak realized something. Where was the spider? His eyes instantly widened. He spoke too soon. In front of his face was a big hairy black spider. It was swinging from the web that was now adorning his head, tidling it's legs as if it were licking its fingers. His eyes widened considerably and Murrue almost choked on herself laughing to hard.

"AHHH! SPIDER!" Yzak shook and his head ran around trying to get it off.

"Hey, Yzak?" Murrue spit out between laughs. "I think it's poisonous,"

He froze and looked right at her for a moment.

"AHHHH! POISONOUS SPIDER!" Murrue then decided that he had enough and moved to grab the web to use for Athrun's wound before Yzak wet himself.

She grabbed Yzak who was now running in place and pulled the string of web with the spider on it from the mess in his hair and tossed it off to the side. She grabbed the web and pulled it gently from his hair.

"You gonna live?" She teased handing him the web.

Yzak didn't answer, but just stomped off in the direction of camp, clearly embarrassed.

A short walk and they were trudging back through the bushed surrounding their campsite, startling everyone a bit.

"Hey, you found the sap," Cagalli spoke up. She had now shifted from the tree she was leaning against when they left to a cozy spot next to the fire and Athrun, who was still out cold.

"You found a spider web also?" Mu spoke up, noticing Yzak was carrying one, pushing himself up against the log he was resting against.

"Well, actually, the spider web kind of found Yzak," She smiled. They all looked at her strangely.

"Let's just say, I had no idea that crouching tiger hidden Yzak over there was arachnophobic,"

Everyone looked at each other with a smirk on their faces. They all then bursted out into laughter of course, making Yzak pout like the little girl he could sometimes very well be.

"Man, if only Athrun were conscious," Dearka choked out.

"Yzak, you bitch," Cagalli sang happily.

Their laughter was cut short when they heard a tired moan. They all looked to find emerald eyes peering up at them, obviously confused. They waited anxiously for him to speak, hoping that this wasn't going to be some cliché memory loss story where he wakes up, looks around and asks everyone who the fuck they are.

For once, they all got lucky.

"You're all the most obnoxious people I have_ ever_ met in my entire life,"

They all sighed with a laugh at his words; things were finally starting to look up.

**Yes, you really can use tree sap to treat cuts. It's only supposed to treat minor cuts and the tree usually only does grow in Hawaii, but, hey, this is a fanficiton. You can also use spider webs to stop bleeding. You'll see how it works in the next chapter. Usually the spider web thing is only effective if you don't walk into it XD**


End file.
